O.k., Today is the 23rd of October. Here are a couple of Autumn pics of the house and Tommie Girl. We are on our one day off, between Days and Nights, on hell week.

Dad is doing better, somewhat. At least he's home and not in the hospital. I hope that he continues to imporve. I also hope he starts maybe looking at retirement. I think that he has worked himself to death.

Rusti and I are both still killed with this 'crud' that's going around. We've both had it for over a week now. I worked dispatch on our day shifts, since our dispatcher was vacating. I swear, between the phone and the 'window' I believe that I talked with every nut in Carter Co. Sunday was very busy, from early in the morning till the end of the shift, both in dispatch and on the road. On Sunday, we overlapped with E.P.D. Shift 4, and I got to see my old buddy, S.P. I was hoping to make contact also with JRam, the Sargeant on that shift, but I didn't get to see him.

It's un-seasonably cold today. Feels like Winter-time. Won't be long before the white stuff starts flying. The leaves are at about their peak this week, and it is sure a beautiful sight. Tennessee scraped out a win in the Bama Game. 3rd Saturday in October is always a dog-fight, no matter what the rankings. Go Vols!!!!!!!!!!!!

More later.

Today is the 18th of October. This has been a really rough week! Rusti has been sick since about last Thursday with a cold, and that's only the beginning. On Monday, the 16th, I had to work my last of 4 night shifts. About 11:30 a.m., Sgt. J, came to our house and beat the door down, until I got up. He gave me an emergency message from Johnson City Medical Center Hospital, to contact the I.C.U. Family Advocate. I knew that my dad had gone in that morning for a biopsy on a spot on his lung. I called, and called, and only got an answereing machine.

Rusti got home around noon for lunch and called and called, to no avail. Answering machine. Well to make a long story short, I found out late in the afternoon, that while my Dad was undergoing the biopsy, he had an uncontrolled internal bleed, and 'coded' once but they got him back, although he was in I.C.U. on a ventilator. Our shift was short, (good ole Harv was vacating), so I went into work. I was not gonna leave my shift with only 2 Deputies on the road.

When I went in to work, Sgt. J. asked what was going on, so I told him. He asked why I had come in, and I told him that I wouldn't leave my shift that short. He said it was a problem for the 'back' and not me, and went in to see Cpt. P. Shortly after that, my Sgt., L. arrived and I told him what was going on. He immediately went to the 'back'. He returned a short time later, called good ole Harv in and told me to go to the hospital.

I went home to change outta my uniform, and Rusti went with me, although she was killed with a cold.

On Tuesday, I spent the day with Mom in the I.C.U. waiting room while we waited on them to do a bronchoscopy on Dad, to see if he was still bleeding. Everything went well, and they sedated him for the night. He was still on the ventilator, however.

On Wednesday, I woke up sick, with the cold or crud, or whatever that Rusti had had. Mom called about 10:30, and advised that they had pulled the intabation tube from Dad that that he was breathing on his own (thank God). She also said that the biopsy had come back 'negative', (again thank God). Since I was sick, I thought that I'd better not go down there, with Dad in his weakened state. He is stable today, though, and breathing on his own.

What a week it has been! I hope he continues to make good progress. Sorry for such a serious post, but that is what has been going on.

On a side-note. I have been very worried about my Dad. Rusti has so totally been there for me. I don't know what I have ever done to deserve her, but I want to publicly say "Thank You, Baby, for being there in such a large way for me!". I don't know what I would do without you!

Just a few pics of the Jeep. Couldn't resist posting them. This is Monday evening of our long break. I dread going back!

Here's a few pics of our new home. I had put the artist's rendering in a post a little while back. We were gonna make a photo journal of the building of our house, however, early in the process, Tommie Girl broke our digital camera (long story).

Anyway, Rusti recently ordered a new camera, so I thought I'd throw these pics out.

Yesterday was the last day of our long set of dayshifts (thank God). Today is the first day of my 7-day break. Yesterday at 16:00 (4:00 p.m., for you civilian-types), we were relieved by the power shift so that we could be inspected by the new Sheriff and Chief Deputy. They checked out our cruisers and equipment, then we had our individual interviews with the new Sheriff and Chief. I felt like everything went pretty good. I am sooo glad, tho, to be off for a few days. I was absolutely killed by the end of this cycle. In a blink of an eye, though, our break will be over.

Our dayshifts were kinda slow, for a change. The cooler weather and the onset of Autumn always seems to slow down the call volumn a little.

Tommorrow is the big Tennessee-Georgia game. I can't wait. I predict a Vol Victory by at least 10 points. Go Vols, spank the Dawgs!

More Later.

O.K., It's the 30th of September. This has been a busy week. It was our short turn-around week. On Monday (my only day off) I went down to Doe River Auto Sales with Larry and was able to trade in my HORRIBLE Durango on the sweet Jeep Wrangler, pictured above. It's a 2002 Jeep Wrangler Sport 4.0L, with a Sony Xplod detachable face stereo, cd, sound bar, air, 5 speed, and many other extras. I absolutely love it! This is my 3rd Jeep! I have always loved Jeeps, and I am tickled to death to have another one.

I had a 1982 Jeep CJ-7 Laredo Hard-top. That was my first Jeep. It was Navy Blue with tinted windows, an Olympic Defender grill guard, sunroof, 304 c.i.d., 4 Speed, high-back seats, 4 KC daylighter off-road lights, 2 KC driving lights, 2 KC fog lights, and an am/fm cassette stereo. My second Jeep was an old U.S. Postal Service Jeep, with the sliding hard doors, and the right-side drive. I had it while I was in Turkey, in the U.S.A.F.

I've always loved Jeeps and am happy to be back in the 'Jeeping' community. Today is Saturday, and the Vols won handilly over the University of Memphis. Go Vols!!!!!!!! Next week we face a real test with Georgia. Guess I'm gonna close for now. I'm gonna put a few links in.

http://www.allthingsjeep.com/jeapjetistst.html

http:///www.4wd.com/newsite/shop/default.asp?model=tj&stid=di

http://www.go-gear.net/

http://www.jeepworld.com/merchandise/merchandise.htm

http://www.4x4products.com/

http://www.jeepfan.com/

http://forums.vmag.com/jjwrangler0200/

http://www.dirtroadmagazine.com/mjl.htm

http://www.willysoverland.com/

I came across this image on the web and had to post it.


This is Islam at it's very basest form.

We finished up our night shifts this morning, and are off until Friday Morning.

We had a pretty busy set of nights. Not a lot of anything remarkable. Lotta junk calls, a lunatic transport to Lakeshore in Knoxville to start the set Friday night. Sgt. TLowe was off for the set, so we were short-handed, again, as usual. 3 Deputies to cover a county of 60,000+. What a good idea.

Good ole Harv really helped us out last night. I got a call almost as soon as I checked in at Unaka Elem. School. Fender-bender, but they needed a report. While I was enroute, they gave good ole Harv a call in Pinecrest in reference to a burglary. When I cleared my wreck, I went to the office to do the report. About two minutes after my arrival at the office, they told me that I needed to take good ole Harv's call, because he had to go home. Well, by now, this call has been holding for about half an hour. When I asked where good ole Harv was at, I found out that he had to go home to birth a f@#king calf. Un-f$%king believable, yet so believable. So me and Doug carried on until about 21:30. Two Deputies on the road for a population of 60,000+. Hope the calf came out o.k.! You know, at some point, it would seem, (maybe I'm just crazy), that you would have to decide...are you gonna be a farmer or a law enforcement officer?

Life in Carter County. Yee-hah!

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006, (obviously, as evidenced by the header). It is the day after the 5th Anniversary of the terrible terrorist attacks of 9/11.

ABC ran a two part miniseries on the events leading up to 9/11. It was excellent, although a lot of controversy has surrounded it (go figure). Democrats again. They even attacked the President's 9/11 Speech. Man, I hate those guys. They are truly gonna be the downfall of our Great Nation.

I just wanted to post a quick message saluting the heroes of 9/11, and remembering the Victims. I hope that the American Public has not forgotten!

Oh, by the way, the American Embassy in Damscus, Syria was attacked this morning by Fascist Jihadists. 3 out of the 4 were killed, and the 4th captured. Syria is such a Police State that I find it hard to believe that the Syrian Government was not involved, at least complictly.

On a far removed note, this is FLORIDA WEEK! Although we have suffered two devestating injuries to key starters from the Air Force game, I feel like we are gonna feast on some Gator meat! Go Vols!!!!!!!!

Today is Friday. We just finished up night shifts, and go back Monday on Days. Last night was the night of Aug. 31/Sept. 1. The new Sheriff, along with his new Chief Deputy apparently came in last night about 18:00 (6:00 p.m.). They apparently looked around for a while and then left, telling the dispatcher that they would return around 08:00. Should be in for some interesting days ahead.

O.K., here's the deal. I haven't updated in a while, for several reasons. We have finally moved out of the "hotbox". We moved our stuff outta there on Aug. 14th. The new house wasn't completely ready yet, though, so we just moved our stuff into the new house in the garage, and stayed with Larry and Sandy for the week. On the 18th, we spent our first night in the new house.

Since the 18th, we have called Charter Communications numerous times, trying to get our Cable and Internet service established in the new house. It has been unbelievable, the run-around that we got from Charter. However, without going into great detail, they finally came today, the 28th, and gave us TV and Internet. You would not believe how much you miss TV and Internet access until you don't have it. Anyway, I am finally back online and will begin to update regularly again.