Today marks my fifth anniversary with my police agency and it does not feel like five years have gone by since my hiring date.  I’ve seen alot in five years and some of it wasn’t on this country’s soil.  Alot can happen in five years and although I might not remember everything I did in five years as a police officer I do remember the highlights and the lowlights. 

I’ve won several awards and certificates throughout those five years, but have seen officers come and go like this job is one big revolving door.  My academy class graduated in 2003 and everyone is still employed there including myself except for maybe two or three others.  One female recruit that went through was failed out of FTO and is now working for NIH.  One asian recruit, male, failed firearms training, but was allowed to come back and graduate.  He didn’t make it through FTO training either and is now wherever he is.  Once guy had to leave the academy and go back to Pennsylvania where he originally came from.  Me, well I guess you can say I belong to two graduating classes in two years.

I left the police academy in 2003 one week before I was to graduate and was shipped out to Afghanistan to fight a war.  I returned back in nine months to only figure out that another academy class was going through at that time.  I had the option of staying out for at least a year and then go back to the academy to make up lost time only or rest for two weeks and come back and finish with the current academy class.  I chosed to finish with the current academy class and graduated with great applause from other officers who attended the ceremony.  During FTO I was given extra hours to finish the program due to me having to remember things and incorporate what I’ve learned previously. 

To everyone’s surprise I finished on time and one of the first one’s off FTO regardless of my difficutly to adapt to civilian life.  During my first year or two I was nicked named the “Eye of the Storm” for reasons of me being able to find trouble amongst the peace and quite of the city and campus.  It always seemed to happen to me to find things at odd times and come across the most difficult situations you could face as a first years officer.  I’ve seen people die in front of me from suicide jumps from my very first service call on FTO being a B&E at a house in the downtown area.  I remember saying to myself something like my first call I’m drawing my weapon to search a house, and I know this will be the beginning of things to come.  I can say proudly that I have not shot anyone up to this point, but still long ways to go in my career.

I’ve had car chases and caught some of them and even had to rough up a few suspects here and there.  I’ve been in numerous fights that my current squad members now usually call me if someone wants to fight or wants to act rowdy.  Some officers I work well with some I don’t, but I know we all have a common goal and that is to get home with our families in one piece.  I’ve heard numerous rumors from high heaven to the lower gates of hell and still alot of times those rumors are just that, rumors. 

Within those five years I’ve met the girl of my dreams and she soon became the wife of my household and the love of my life.  I don’t regret doing what I did to get her and spoiling her now everyday is something I enjoy doing and that brings me joy.  I thank God I haven’t suffered nightmares or war dreams as much as some or most soldiers would suffer from.  I still get them now and then, but they are so far and few between that I can’t remember most of the time the last one I had.  I suppose I can start writing them down to see if a pattern emerges or not.  Since being back in the U.S. since 2004 I can probably say I’ve been sick once or none at all.  I’ve been around folks with the flu and pnuemonia and it never affected my body one bit except a runny nose.  It would go around twice in the family before it would even disappear for good.  I’m enjoying that part of my immune system as it may last for the rest of my life or only for a short while longer.  I got sick twice overseas in Afghanistan and one illness kept me up for 8 hours in agony and frustrations.  I got sick the first time eating the local food with a few U.S. soldiers and couldn’t move literally for three days unless I wanted to throw up each time I moved.  The second time I was diagnosed with an upper respiratory virus, which basically gave me difficulty breathing in.  Took about a week for that to go away with an inhaler and other medications.

I have to say that I am a different person from the time of the Pre-Afghanistan Tour through it all and to the Post-Afghanistan Tour.  To be quite honest if I didn’t go overseas I have no clue where I would be in my life right now and what kind of person I would be.  I’m glad for the experience even though at that time I was scared and not enjoying myself sort of speak.  Now, my wifey and I have found a church for us to go worship in every Sunday and enjoy the people very much so.

It is a different world over there and people are not getting the full story on what is going on.  News don’t touch close to half of what is going on over there and will only tell you what they are allowed to dissiminate to the public.  So my five years in law enforcement have pretty much derived from my military tour that started in 2003.  Even though I spent eight years as a Military Policeman I was nothing like I am now personality wise.  I wouldn’t say I was a bad person, but certain things I say or do now I probably would be too scared to do back then. 

So as I step into my fifth year in law enforcement as a civilian police officer I will pray and hope that God will give me another five years in police work and more beyond that.  I look back and I can’t think of anything that I would regret happening.  That my friends right there is a serious accomplishment within itself.

I was sitting in bed this morning shortly after my wifey left for work today and got the thinking about something after her and I had a conversation.  We were talking about a woman always calling behind her husband like she has some insecurity issues and acts like she doesn’t trust him.  My wifey explained that the guy said to my wifey that he hasn’t done anything to make her act this way, but before marriage she was fine and no major issues.  Now since they’ve been married she’s always on his case and following behind him like he is a little boy.  The way she is going she is either going to run him away or he will soon ignore her actions and don’t care what she does or say and wishing she goes away.  Then she will probably want to be all upset and get mad at him when he wants a divorce from her.  Some women want to get all upset when the man wants to leave, but it seems like sometimes the woman doesn’t want to admit to her own faults for the marriage or relationship falling.  Some say all married men cheat, but do you realize that sometimes a woman’s actions can lead the man to cheat? Trust me, I’m not condoning it, but sometimes you have to look at why instead of how could they.

Once the woman leaves a man or he leaves her she usually follows up with the comment “I don’t need a man!” or “I’m an independent black woman”.  Very rare do I hear “I’m a independent white woman.” From them its usually “I don’t need you!”, but in either case all comments are incorrect and you truly do need someone in your life and more than likely someone you don’t care for.  For instance, how can you say you don’t need a man or don’t need someone to help you succeed in anything when you are wearing business clothes or suits that are made by another person.  Unless, you are your own fashion maker you need to go to someone’s store to buy their brand of clothing to make you look successful.  If you get that job that you was looking for then you needed that persons creativity of style to become famous or to become successful.

We all drive cars and trucks pretty much on a daily basis and if not we take some sort of public transportation to get to where we need to go.  Think about it unless, you build your own car or truck from scratch and create your own parts for your custom vehicle you will need the manufactures who have the parts available or even the creation of the vehicle you drive to accomplish your daily goals.  We can’t just sit in our garages or in a parking space in a parking lot and start building a vehicle for ourselves.  If you can do that you still need to follow the federal regulations in accomplishing your project, which was written by lawmen in congress. 

So far it looks like we all need someone in our lives in some sort of shape or fashion.  Women can’t get pregnant unless you have a man who can provide you with the seed to create a baby.  You might not need to be with him per se, but you still need a man to have a baby.  Some women may even say that they don’t need a man for nothing in their lives, but that comment is so ignorant you are surrounded by things that are either created or designed by a man.  The same thing goes for men who need women to create a baby as well, unless a man can do something a woman can do and in that case you may need to get that checked out.  We all need each other because how did you come to life on this earth?  Unless you created yourself you had to be born through your momma’s wound or a c-section, which was used by a man to conceive you. 

Now some may say that I’m thinking way out of the box with this “I don’t need someone” bit, but you have to think this way to actually know how crazy people sound.  I heard that Victoria’s Secret was created by a man at first long time ago.  If that is true then all the women who are wearing this brand name lingerie need a man or needed a man make them look sexy to themselves or to others.  This article isn’t just to bash on women needing a man strictly, but to get people to think about what they say.  I’m using the comments that women say mostly and that I hear alot as an example for my blog entry.  If you really wanted to settle this arguement we all had to be created by GOD who we all need to exist on this earth that he created for us to live on, which we need so we are not living out in space without gravity.

So you see I can continue on and on about this, which can take days to bring to light.  I just wanted to alert everyone reading this that what you say sometimes actually doesn’t make any sense.  We all need someone or somebody in our lives to either make our lives better, wealthier, classier, to get a better education, a better job, or even a better car or house.  So whether you are a man or woman we need each other, which in turn we also help each other which may be my next blog entry on “Helping each other”.  Oh and before I go I want to clarify that we all need a man in our lives every single day.  We say “Heavenly Father” not “Heavenly Mother” and it is GOD who breathes life into you everyday since He can talk you out of existance.

I tell you, it gets old when cops respond to a scene to meet with the reporting person and find out the information about the incident is being given by a third or fourth party.  Reason being is because the original reporting person didn’t want to be met by the police.  Also the reporting person told her RA (resident assistant) about the incident she was involved in and the RA told another RA so RA #1 can go to her boyfriend’s house.  Then when the second RA tells us what happen we hear that the reporting person doesn’t want to be met and that RA went to her boyfriend’s house.

People when you call the police to respond to a scene to check out a suspicious persons or vehicle please do not leave the scene.  Leaving the scene and giving your detail about the incident to a third party gets scrambled and lost in translation.  The incident I am refering to in this posting is a 10-75 (suspicious persons) who apparently followed a female student into one of the dorms on the north side of campus.  The female student stated that they didn’t know this person or don’t believe they ever met before.  Then she tried to loose him and apparently she lost him and was never seen again.  Two of us respond to the scene and find out the same information along with what I just wrote in the beginning of this post. 

That pissed us off to no end when we found out about that lack of information.  Furthermore, the female student stated to the RA that the suspect who was following her may still be in the building.  Well when we asked for the description of the suspicious person we had not one piece of clothing description or what he looked like.  I was then thinking if someone is following you and making you that uncomfortable when you call the police you are going to give a description of the person.  So now my partner and I are walking through the dorm building with no idea of who we are looking for.  We just walked through the building to allow our presence to be known, but of course no person was ever stopped. 

I was wondering is going to your boyfriend’s house more important than the safety of your fellow students?  Even if you are not on duty that night you are a RA and the students come to you before we are phoned.  What kind of precedence are you setting for other RA’s and students when you leave the scene like that without telling the place.  The same advice goes to other people who report incidents to the police.  Now, there are some incidents where all you have to do is call the police and your presence is not needed, but for a situation that involves a suspicious persons you need to be on scene.  Leaving the scene like that kind of resembles a hit and run accident with no note left for the victim. 

Just remember people we have to use our heads when calling the police, but if you don’t know whether you need to stay on scene or not ask the dispatcher and they can tell you.  I understand that for some reason you might not want to be scene with the police, but sometimes it is necessary.  So remember just leaving the scene like that is not smart.  Right now it is sleeting and will turn into snow later on this morning so I must go, but be safe out there people and stay warm.

I look at this special day as a day for the woman to be treated a notch higher than how she is treated throughout the year.  This is a day that most men who love their significant other treat them to a dinner, bath, massages, and other treatments that they think their girlfriend or wives deserve.  If you want to be honest the woman deserves this type of treatment everyday of the year, but that’s an opinion for every man to have.  I’ve seen the same thing where a guy orders a teddy bear with a heart sown on and tied to it is a box of candy or some type of item in the shape of a heart.  I’m not saying that doing something like is not good or sweet, but sometimes you have to change it up.

This year I did something different that I know my wife didn’t expect for me too do.  Earlier that morning she was getting ready to go to work and was feeling kind of down about some things.  This was kind of dampening the mood she should have had because of this special day.  Once she left and I saw her off to her car I immediately got to thinking of how I can make this day special for her.  I then grabbed some pink copy paper and begin folding a few sheets at a time and cutting hearts out of them.  You know, doing the old elementary school project of folding the paper and cutting your object out starting with the folded side. 

I made about four hearts and wrote on one sheet of pink paper and placed in a sheet protector.  Once I placed it in the sheet protector I then stuck it under the pillow case so when she lays her head down she can hear the wringling of the paper.  The four hearts that I made I placed all over the apartment in special spots where she would see them, but at the same time can easily pass them.  I stuck the very first one behind the front door so only you can see it if you are looking at the door or getting ready to exit the apartment.  The second one I stuck on the refridgerator so she could see that plainly out in the open when she goes to get something to drink.  The third one I stuck in an unusual spot on the toilet bowl lid on the side facing down so when she lifts it up she can see it.  Then the last one I stuck in the shower stall opposite side of the shower head.

Before she came home I went to CVS and brought a special card for her and stuck it on her vehicle.  She said that she drove home crying and happy from the card she got, but I told her that she wasn’t done.  She began to look around the apartment for them, but spotted only one on the fridge.  That just sent her overboard into tears of happiness and joy and made the day very happy one instead of a dreary one of how it started.  She cried in the kitchen for about a few moments and told her you are still not done.  She walked by the one in the bathroom on the lid at least twice and even stayed in the bathroom.  She finally spotted the one on the front door and was happy. 

I gave her a hint for the one in the bathroom and told her that the other ones she may find when she goes to bed and when she showers in the morning.   While I was at work she texted me to tell me that she found the one hidden in the pillow case.  Then the next morning when I was on my way home she told me she found the one in the shower after she was done.   Those heart shaped notes made her day and made her smile from the frown she had that Valentine’s Day morning.  I told her that I love her and she repeated it back to me.  Of course, she got asked questions about her night with me, but of course she didn’t explain anything to her co-workers. 

You got to love your woman enough to let her know that you are willing to do whatever it is you need to do to make her happy.  My wife found out then if she didn’t know before that I love her and that I am one man that will do what I can for her.

My last blog I wrote I expressed and explained how my Saturday went and what we were dealing with.  Sunday on the other hand was somewhat a better exprience, but this one we are blessed that no one got hurt.  I left the hospital Saturday after dealing with a suspect on PCP at 0800hrs (am).  I came back to work that night at 2200hrs (10pm), but it was under the impression that I was coming in late because of the time I left that previous morning.  I didn’t know that it was expected of me to come in late that night, but I came in on my scheduled shift time and got to work.

The night pretty much went well besides having service calls all night long.  It wasn’t that busy, but I did have time to eat a meal from Taco Bell and complete my supplement report from the previous night at the hospital.  Come to find out that my narrative didn’t need to be written, but that decision to have my narrative erased was my squad sergeant’s choice.  I didn’t agree with it, but I do have a copy of the report so if it comes back in question later I have it.

So I was getting off work that Sunday morning at around 0745hrs., and heading up the road.  I crossed underneath a train track bridge and saw up ahead a white van at a corner.  I got closer and saw another drive stopped by to check or help on this vehicle.  As I got closer I noticed it was a white van that skidded out of control and landed into a traffic light pole, crashing through a guardrail and that parts of the van were scattered all of the parking lot of a building that was adjacent.  I attempted to released the driver from the vehicle and so did the good samaritan, but we were unable to do so.  A few moments later another fellow officer who was also leaving to go home came up on scene.  He is also a volunteer fire fighter and had the tools to break the glass so the driver could get out.  By this time our units and the county police arrived on scene to take care of the accident. 

When the driver got out of the vehicle we noticed that his shoes were off, he was in some type of maintenance uniform, and slurred speech as to say he was under the influence of alcohol.  I couldn’t really smell it on his breath, but just him talking to the police and getting all up in their face led me to that conclusion.  Not to mention he was driving the vehicle with no license except a international driving permit with no Jamaican driver’s license.  Things didn’t look good for this guy at all and I forgot to mention that the air bag, if there was one, didn’t deploy at all.  For all we know he could have suffered a head injury and that could have been why his speech was so slurred and his statements were no making sense.

He kept changing his mind back and forth of going to the hospital until finally the ambulance crew had enough and transported him to the hospital.  The accident was handled by the county police even though our agency could have taken the report as well.  I stayed until the driver was in the ambulance being transported to the hospital.  The driver did also hit the pole so hard that one of the traffic lights got turned facing downward toward the ground.  So it looked weird seeing one traffic light facing the traffic and the other one facing the ground, but both still worked. 

After that I got in my personal vehicle and left to come home to my wife and explain to her what happened.  All I could say to myself was that this weekend was a crazy one.  I can only imagine what kind of day it was when Barrack Obama comes to town.

The weekend of February 11th was so far the craziest weekend I’ve had this year.  Wearing the badge and gun comes with sacrifices and ordeals that alot of police officers do not enjoy dealing with.  We deal with people on drugs, drunk drivers, drunk pedestrians, rowdy college students, and other issues that gets old real quick dealing with them on a daily basis.  Each officer has their own little niche that they have when patrolling each and every night and/or day.  Some are more agressive than others and other officers are much more able to communicate with citizens on a better level.  What happened this weekend, especially saturday, brings all kinds of police officers together to fight one common cause.  SURVIVAL!

On the early Saturday morning of February 10, 2008 at approximately 0152hrs (am) a lieutenant, of my agency, saw a vehicle at the intersection of Route 1 and Paint Branch Parkway sitting in a ditch up against a tree.  When the lieutenant called out the traffic accident I was way across on the other side of the city and knew by the time I got their more units would have already arrived.  I was on the side of the road watching traffic waiting to see if my arrival was necessary.  The rookies that were on the road responded to the accident scene and by hearing the number of officers that called out at the accident I knew it was sufficient units.

I continued to watch traffic shortly their after, but got bored sitting their and decided to drive around doing special checks in and around the city.  At about 0300hrs (am) I was called over the radio by my supervisor that our officers needed me to deliver them an Alcohol Blood Test Kit for the driver involved in the accident.  I went to our old police station and grabbed the kit and headed on up to the hospital to deliver the kit.  Once I arrived at the hospital I was being asked outside of the front doors by a released patient to give them a ride home.  Of course, I was unable to do so because I was there for another reason and also that where he or she wanted to go was to far for my supervisor to even grant such request. 

I finally was able to get into the hospital and meet a fellow officer in front the emergency room where the driver was being treated.  The officer was telling me that the guy has been fighting them and the nurses since he was put into the ambulance on the way there.  I also found out later that the driver had been vandalizing his own vehicle on the inside by tearing up the driver’s side head rest, dashboard, steering wheel, and other things immediately after he crashed.  I was taken back by that detailed account of the driver acting that way and the other officers knew when they arrived at that scene it was going to be one hell of an ordeal.  Once I gave the officer the test kit he handed over to one of the nurse’s as they were getting ready to take his blood.  Suddenly, the driver erupted in a violent rage by kicking out of soft leg shackles and trying to break through handcuffs.  I saw that and ran into the room to grab hold of his left leg, but it was like my strength and everything I had didn’t have any affect on controlling them.  It was one officer on each leg and our female rookie near his right arm and rib cage trying to hold him down and control him. 

At this time I pulled out my OC spray (pepper spray) and pointed at the patient and he started to calm down, but was still fighting.  One of the nurse’s stated that we were aggravating him and at that time I put my OC spray away.  Most of the nurse’s left the room and he started to act up again by kicking his legs and yelling “What the fuck is going on?!” repeatedly.  He wouldn’t stop and kept fighting so the female officer pulled out her OC spray and asked me to spray him and I told her give it to him good.  She sprayed him at least four times with the last time getting him right in the face.  Before that he yelled “Oh yeah!! I love this shit!”.

Once that last blast of pepper spray got him he finally started to comply and got back on his back.  Legs were shackled once again for the fourth time, but the handcuffs never came off of his wrists.  He complained about his face burning and his shoulder burning and requested some water, which one of the nurses did.  A nurse brought in a few face mask to cover our mouth and nose with so we could breath without inhaling the pepper spray in the air.  Everyone in the emergency ward was coughing and telling us it came out in the hallway and got everyone feeling the same way.  Then we found out later that morning that it was a big no no to deploy OC spray in the hospital so you don’t affect other patient’s have the spray in the ventilation system. 

It would appear I was the only one that could talk to the patient and keep him calm and at least from acting violently.  Of course, it didn’t mean much when my supervisor came to the hospital and yelled at him a few times to get him aggrevated once again.  He requested that we take off the handcuffs at least so he could sit up.  Of course, that request kept getting denied over and over again and he even pleaded with us that he would be good.  Then the results came back that the driver, who is now the patient, came back with positive results of PCP in the blood system. 

From 0300-0600 I dealt with him along with other officers who was there before I got there until a nurse gave him some type of medication that knocked him out cold.  She said it was only going to put him out for about two hours, but come to find out later on that night when I returned to work that it was projected that he wouldn’t wake up until 3 to 4 pm.  I left the hospital at 8am since I had personal things to take care of after my midnight shift.  Apparently the other officers left and decided to apply for a warrant later on and just allow the hospital to keep him until he comes off his high.  So I have no clue when he was released, but we may see him again and hopefully it will be a better meeting. 

We all know or at least a good portion of this country knows the movie sequels “Terminator” one, two, and three.  For the people who actually pay attention to this movie you have seen the sequel come up as probably one of the best movie sequels in history.  “Back to the Future” would probably be my close second, but everyone’s movie taste is different in some ways.  In order to understand “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”, you have to see parts 1 and 2 first.  Then you will understand why the machines are rising against the human race.  I think they will make a part 4 just because of how part 3 ended, but the that remains to be seen.

In the movie sequel you see how the machines become an enemy of the human race.  Well, we don’t exactly have a war against the machines in our real-life scenarios, but how the technology is changing the world can spark one in everyone.  Alot of the baby boomers or maybe even older have trouble learning computers and some just refuse to use them or use them with as least interests as possible. 

You look at movies that show in Midevil times and you see that they did everything with hard labor behind it.  Well as the centuries went along we have had a “Rise of the Machines” ourselves and they will continue to rise amongst us.  As the years go by in our lifetime more things become computerized and digital.  Even though Terminator is a fiction movie could we see something like that in the future? Probably not with a high rate of probability of it happening, but if computers take over everything who knows what may happen.  

I would hate to see all the computers in the world start to malfunction at the same time and accidentally shoot off missles or cause things to go in their own direction.  A long time ago we, the world, had a scare when the year 2000 came in and a Russian ICBM or some type of long range missle was launched by a computer.  Not many will remember this because the Russians destroyed it in the air before it was to late.  In which direction was it flying I don’t know, but it didn’t last too long in the air.  My unit was mobilized that New Year’s and the streets of Baltimore City was empty completely.  We were looking in the air at airplanes and heard sirens immediately after the ball dropped.  Once it was determined that no riots or serious problems arised out of the 2K scenario we demobilized and went home.

We are heading towards a totally computerized world to where you can’t do nothing without some type of computer skill.  Our vehicles today have automatic windows and buttons and you can get things done by just giving a computer a command.  With all this technology coming or rising up we could all get lazy at one point in our lives and forget what it is like to do things yourself without computers.  As new generations continue to be born into this computer age this age will be normal to them as this era will be more advanced  for the rest of us. 

The new generation will not know exactly what it was like before computers became a major part of our lives.  So it will probably be wise to bring this generation up and the generations afterwards in both the computer way of doing things and being independent on your own.  Sooner or later the only thing we will be doing ourselves without computers is assisting us in sleep.  Now, I’m not saying that we should all just ban against computers or that machines are bad, but look at our society closer and pay more attention.

The military is becoming more computerized and slowly the police are following behind them.  How far are we really from everything in site being completely computerized? We can all make educated guesses with this, but only time will tell.  I’m not trying to scare anyone in anyway, but this was something that came to me one day about computers and how they run our lives.  You use debit and credit cards at cash registers and the computer automatically takes out the funds of your account.  ATM’s, hospitals, fire departments, and police stations all have computers in them either controlling the operation or making the operation easier for us all. 

With all new ipod’s and cellular phones coming out with new gidgets and stuff, again how far are we from complete concentration of computers running everything? Could that time be already here? Everyone has their own answer to this.  I know that the “Rise of the Machines” is for real unlike the Terminator movie, but which element will be in total control? Humans or Machines?

I am all about saving for the future and living each moment as it is a blessing from God.  We all have things in our lives that has happened that we are not proud of, but do we actually learn from our mistakes? My wifey has gone through alot in her life with me and even before me and I often wonder about some of the people that did not treat her with the respect and love that she deserved.  Since being with me I have seen men who have either dated her or has known her constantly show themselves by either emailing or calling our phone to speak to her.  She may even get texts messages from certain people and they would continually text her even though she doesn’t respond back most of the time. 

What I’m saying is that she is their PAST and she is my PRESENT, but they continually tap into the PAST to make her their PRESENT and FUTURE.   Their actions towards her shows me that they have no respect for me as a man and as an individual who now and forever treats her like she is the queen.  Once the past has passed you can not undue it like Michael J. Fox in “Back to the Future” or “Quantum Leap” (an old show) to change things.  You can only move forward and hoped that you have learned from your PAST mistakes so you don’t repeat them in the FUTURE. 

We know of one guy who constantly bad mouths my wifey all the time and she has not once responded to his derogatory comments.  The constant bashing of my wifey from this “so called” man’s mouth is immature, childish, and wreckless.  She stopped talking to him for a reason once before and I see why he is not in our PRESENT lives at the moment.  He is living in the PAST by constantly reminding himself of old feelings that he had towards my wifey and talks about her in the PAST tense.  How does he expect to come halfway across the country and thinking that he will do it big when he had no plans from the beginning on how to do so?  Seems to me that this guy has still some growing up to do and needs to allow the PAST to die so he can renew himself for the FUTURE. 

We have all heard the cliche that history does repeat itself, but why is that? Do our actions sometimes dictate the PAST to become the PRESENT?  I mean the world is round so things do just go in one huge circle as life goes through time.  Many of us block our own blessings sometimes by living in the past or holding grudges towards others for something that happened days, months, or years ago.  I do understand that everyone has their own healing period to allow things to completely heal, as that old saying goes time heals all wounds, but you have to know when the time is right to move on and continue.  When a love one passes away remember that person in the positive and all the good things that person represented and did. 

Sometimes we do have to go back in order to go forward and even then if we just take our time in everything we do in life we don’t have to worry about the PAST catching up to us.  I look at life in several ideas, but one way I try to look at life is that the time on your watch doesn’t go backwards, unless we are entering the fall season.  Even if your watch stops time still goes on with your body aging everyday and the invisable seconds that tick by throughout the day.  Most of us live for the FUTURE because we may know someone or of someone who didn’t do certain things or didn’t save money like they should have  in the PAST so we don’t end up going the same route as that person may have gone. 

It would appear that life as we know it derives from PAST experiences from our personal situations or others.  We PRESENTLY live free because of PAST wars we have fought and won to keep our freedom the way it is now.  We may watch television and see an elderly woman on “48 HOURS” or “DATELINE” who may have gotten scammed for her money.  Watching her bad PAST experience would catapolt alot of us in the PRESENT to avoid such similar issues in the FUTURE.  We live in buildings and drive on roads that were built in the PAST so we can enjoy them now and further into the FUTURE. 

Alot of our life if not all has derived from our decisions in the PAST to what we eat, drink, where we live and where we work.  Our personalities can be formed from PRESENT situations, but could also be passed down from our previous generations.  Right now we have political candidates running for president of the United States for 2009, which is in the FUTURE.  We need to vote in the PRESENT to pick one person to run our FUTURE as a whole country.  Once that person is picked and they become president of this great country they will become the PAST and the PRESENT because the FUTURE has been set.  Many of our decisions that we made 5, 10, or 20 years ago maybe affecting us PRESENTLY, but our PRESENT situations which could have derived from the PAST can be different in the FUTURE if we can all make better decisions for ourselves.

A couple of days ago I was sitting down on the couch with my wifey watching “Parking Wars”.  Now, I have never seen this show before, but apparently wifey has seen at least one episode of this show.  I tell you what, I was laughing and was wondering at the same time how people act when they get ticketed for illegal parking.

I have been in law enforcement for about 10 years with the last five years being on the civilian side of working for the state.  It just hit me that day that people will go ape s*** over a parking ticket and fight tooth and nail for it to go away, but when most people get pulled over by the police they are calm when traffic tickets are issued.  I have pulled over several vehicles in my career so far and have had a few irrate drivers get upset.  I watched this show and almost every person was at the impoundment service window causing an issue because their vehicle was towed for unpaid parking tickets.

One guy even said that they aren’t the cops and they can’t keep him from driving his vehicle because the registration is not valid.  Sorry to inform the people, but once your vehicle is impounded and your registration is not current you will not be able to get your vehicle out.  Ninety percent of people I pull over are calm and cooperative when they get issued a ticket.  About 8 percent is upset and may get an attitude about being pulled over, but usually still cooperates in the long run.  The other 2 percent that I pull over for violations wants to get all irrate and want to give cops attitude for doing their jobs.

I just dont understand how people will get so upset and so angry over a parking ticket that could be 26-75 dollars and that carries no points, but when an officer sees you and you get a ticket of about 80 dollars and a point you are mostly apologetic and calm.  I have also issued parking tickets as well and people will run out from whereever they are to save their vehicle from being ticketed.   Most parking tickets if not all are less than traffic citations when it comes to fines and points being along with them.  I do understand that no one wants either one, but if you are going to act all upset and irrate like that I would think it would be a traffic ticket.  Then again you don’t want to act that way towards a cop because obviously he/she carries more authoritative power than a meter maid or parking enforcer. 

I guess that would be why most people don’t act the same way towards police officers like they do towards parking enforcement.  I suppose it also depends on the officer, either police or parking, how they treat and talk to the person receiving the ticket.   I suppose with most peoples attitude towards police whether they like them or hate them that if they act a fool or give police officers attitude that they can make the situation worse for themselves.  I guess that would explain why majority of the people in this world who come in contact with police officers don’t get nasty as quick as they would with parking enforcement.  But, that would also bring to my attention that you don’t hear of parking enforcement being shot or killed in the line of duty like you do with police officers.   Sad to say, but I guess it all depends on what you have carrying on your hip.  Either a parking ticket book or a service weapon.

What’s up yall?! I am writing my very first blog for others around the internet world to see.  I have been wanting to do this for a while now when I saw my wifey doing it on a regular basis.  I would also like to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!! to all and hopefully whatever resolutions you had up to this point is still in affect.

This being only the tenth day of the new year alot of resolutions can still be going strong.  That also means that alot of resolutions could either be fading fast or have already been buried beneath your stack full of promises that you have failed to keep.  Keeping resolutions is all fine and dandy, but don’t go overboard with decisions that you know you won’t be able to pursue consistently.  I am all for challenging yourself when it comes to resolutions, but you also have to be real to yourself.  This is the time of year we all see gyms full to the capacity, which can alert the fire marshals of code violations (lol).

Usually by the end of the month or by the beginning of February you start to see the gym not so full.  Also pay attention to the fluxuation of people who go to the gym when it is near zero degrees or alot of snow on the ground.  Tell me if you still see the same amount of folks in the gym then.  After some great big snow storm that is when you start to see a drop off of people in the gym.  Then you might see it spike at the beginning of summer for women and men trying to rush their bodies into shape for the Mertle Beach or Ocean City trip coming up in late July.  Their so dehydrated or frustrated at this point that some give up and start over again next year. 

So if you are the person that keeps up to what you say to yourself and strive for the goal I congradulate you!  The month of January is a beginning month for everyone in everything you do.  If you was always late for work in 2007 then 2008 should the year you start making yourself reliable for others.  If you always said to yourself that you need to put your car in the shop and never did, then this year should be the year you do that and up keep the maintenance.  Whatever you think you need to improve on start of simple and you can always increase your goal as the year goes on.  What you want is your goal to be going strong all year long and with great momentum going into 2009.  What most people do wrong is look at how long they have to go or it will take to complete their goal.  That can be a disheartening feeling itself and not wanting to suffer or take that long to complete whatever you need to complete.

I have several goals this year and one of them is to be more reliable to my boss and get back into my artistic talent.  I have several small goals instead of one huge goal that I know I don’t have time to complete.  Think small and sooner or later when you are done with all your goals all the small ones together will equal one big one.  A different person!! who you always wanted to be.  Just remember patience plays a big part in what you do so if you don’t have patience you won’t complete your assignment.  Good luck to all! And see you all again soon.