O.k., back to more of the local issues. As I have stated before, we are in the process of building a new house. Said new house won't be ready for at least another month. We sold our other place in January or Febuary, I don't remember which. That left us with trying to find somewhere to live in the interim, which we did. We got lucky, in some respects. We found a house, near where we are building (very convienient), where we could take our little dog, and it wasn't an apartment. Also, the owner of the house understood our predicament of only needing temporary housing and let us rent month-to-month without a lease. The house is not that great, and the rent is higher than what it should be, but, wtf, with all the other benefits, described above, it seemed tolerable in the short term. Now for the fun part.

The problems with the house are too numerous to mention, however, we have tolerated them. The owner has been in a prolonged campaign (for lack of a better word) to sell the house. The house will never, ever pass a house inspection, much less bring anywhere near the asking price. Anyway, during the hottest summer on record, (and I hate summer and heat, in general), the air conditioning system went out. It's about 1:00 a.m. as I type this and it is at least 90 degrees in this house. I, along with Rusti and Tommie, am totally miserable. I've been sitting around sweating this evening, trying not to move too much. It is hell on earth. The owner of the house seems to think that it is funny. Hmm.

Just venting a little because I am absolutely crazy from the heat. I am about afraid to even be on my computer due to the heat and humidity. God, I hope our house gets done soon.

So that is really accelerating my enjoyment of my days off. I dread going back to work and trying to sleep in this hotbox. As a sidenote, my Sargeant and his wife made it back from Barbados safely. He came by last night and we played some ultra-competitive golf (Tiger Woods 2005) on the Playstation. Sadly to say, he beat me more than I beat him. It was probably the heat that killed my game. Till next time.

I should probably stay away from politics in this blog, and leave analysis to the 'experts'. I will try, for the most part.

A couple of quick things, though. I support Israel, and it's inherent right to self-defense. Israel is surrounded by enemies, and I think that if they really threw off the shackles of restraint, they could wipe out all of their enemies in the region in about a day and a half. I think America has many historic and cultural ties to Israel, and I am glad we support them on the world stage. Of course that opens us up even more for the wrath of the 'mullahs', but they will always hate us, because, deep down, in their collective 7th century stone cold hearts, they are jealous of us. I have lived amongst them, and I think it really boils down, essentially, to something as petty as jealousy. I don't think that they want what we have, especially, but I don't think they want us to have it either. Anyway, it appears that God's Chosen People have opened up an industiral-sized can of whoop-ass, and I don't think they are gonna put the lid back on until the job is done. Just my humble opinion.


THE FACE OF MADNESS!

One other thing before I close this out for today. Who are all of these Americans 'trapped' in Lebanon? I know that there are Government employees there, both official and un-official. Who are these 'tourists'? Can anyone tell me. I mean, c'mon, who vacations in Beirut? What could you be thinking? I'm wondering, personally, if this is not Darwinism in action.

Anyway, end of rant for today. More later, hopefully I can keep it more on the local level.

A few links of interest:

http://www.iaf.org.il/Templates/HomePage/HomePage.aspx?lang=EN

The English version of the IDF Air Force Website!

http://www.iaf.org.il/Templates/HomePage/HomePage.aspx?lang=EN

The English version of the IDF Website!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Special_Forces

A Wikipedia article on Israeli Special Forces!

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Finally, the week is over. Just a quick update. We had a bunch of calls for service today, and the weather was unbearably hot.

Someone once said that on dayshifts, 'they' hit the crazy button at about 14:00 (2:00 p.m.). After that, it's call to call to call until quitting time. There's a lotta truth to that.

Anyway, about 16:20 (4:20 p.m.), during the height of the last afternoon, Good Ole Harv calls me on my cell phone and informs me that he has to go home, because his fence is breeched and his cattle might get out. That leaves 2 (me and Doug) on the road for the rest of the shift. Great! Sometimes it seems like you gotta decide if you're gonna be a farmer or a law enforcement officer. That's probably just crazy talk on my behalf. Life goes on in bizzaro world.

I'm just glad our 7-day break is finally upon us. More later.

Here is a little pic of Tommie Girl again, who is lying asleep in my lap as I type this. Today is Wednesday, meaning that we have only one more dreaded day shift to plod through before we go on our 7 day break. It's been a very busy week, and as I said before, we have been short-handed (what else is new?). This week, so far, has been pretty brutal. The temperature has hovered around 90 everyday, with extremely high humidity. Today is the first day out of the week that I have got home almost on time, without having to work over.

About 11:oo this morning, I was dispatched on a 10-58 (intoxicated) male, threatening 10-94 (suicide), weapons unknown. Pretty (potentially) volatile call. At the time of the call, I was coming through the lower end of a small municipality known as Watauga. There is a resteraunt there called 'Carol's Cafe'. As I passed it, I saw Good Ole Harv's car parked there and knew that it was lunch-time for him. While enroute to the call, Good Ole Harv Called the Watauga-dedicated unit on the radio (who should have been dispatched on the call originally, anyway) to meet him for lunch. The Watauga dedicated unit (9-1) advised Good Ole Harv that he was gonna back me up on the call, which he did. I'm really glad that Good Ole Harv got to eat his lunch in peace. Apparently there is no part of his concious that directs him to back up the men on his shift. It was really allegorical of how this whole week has gone. Luckily for me, the intoxicated drunk man agreed to go with the Rescue Squad for voluntary commital. Incidentaly, when 9-1 showed up, as the squad was loading said drunk suicidal man, he said to me: "can you believe him" (referring to Good Ole Harv).

Anyway, I guess that I am rambling a little bit. They worked on the new house a little more today, so that was good. I guess that's all the news that is news. As far as the rest of the day, it was junk call after junk call, but at least I got home just a little after quitting time. More later.

O.K., It's Sunday. We went to the new Lone Star Resteraunt in Elizabethton for lunch today. It was pretty good. They had a 'frosted' bar, which was coool. Rusti had a chopped steak and I had a Cheeseburger. I couldn't eat all of it. The only complaint I had, (which pisses me off immensely) is that we ordered an appetizer, which they brought out after our entre's arrived. I absolutely hate when that happens. I told Rusti that we should send it back, but she demurely just ordered a box for it. Oh, well.

Got to start the dreaded day shifts at 0-dark-thirty in the morning. I hope we have a good week, with no mental transports to Knoxville. Could we be so lucky?

We watched a couple of DVD's this weekend. "Annapolis" and "Syriana". "Annapolis" kinda sucked. I kinda liked it, but Rusti thought is was full of cliche's and was totally predictable. "Syriana" was kinda hard to follow, but, all in all, was a pretty good movie.

A couple of more links, and then I'm out,

http://www.imdb.com

http:///www.usna.edu///homepage.php

http://www.usma.edu/

http:///www.usafa.af.mil/

http://www.uscga.edu/

http://www.usmma.edu/

Here is a pic of my shift sargeant, T Lowe. He left for his summer vacation in Barbados today. I hope he has a good time. His vacating (is that a word?) has left us with a problem, however. We start back on day shifts Monday and work through Thursday. It will be me and Doug, along with our nefarious Lieutenant, Harvy. As I have stated before, Harv won't help us with anything. He is R.O.A.D. (retired on active duty). So it will be pretty much just me and Doug covering the whole county for essentially a week. I hope we have a good week, but 2 deputies, serving a population of nearly 60,000, is not a safe situation. Oh well. I dread it.

Today was Larry T's (my father-in-law) birthday. We spent the evening with Larry, Sandy (my mothe-in-law), and Hannah (their little Yorkie).
My brother-in-law Curtis was up, along with his wife, Dana, and their little daughter Brooke. We ate pizza and roasted marshmellows. It was a lotta fun. I'm glad Curtis got to come up. He's always a blast to be around. He's a Federal Agent, based out of Oak Ridge, TN, so we don't get to hang out near enough.

I'm trying to talk my wife, Rusti, into getting a second Boston Terrier, as a brother or sister to Tommie Girl. So far, not having much luck. Anyway, it's been a pretty fun day. I'll probably post a couple of more good links. Hope I don't repeat any posted earler!

http://www.cafepress.com/littlebeasts

http://www.bostonterriersrock.blogspot.com/

http://www.kateconnick.com/postcard.html

http://www.generalshale.com/content.php?page=home

http://www.elkcorp.com/

http://cagle.msnbc.com/main.asp

http://www.nbc.com/Deal_or_No_Deal/

http://www.cowboycomedian.com/

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SPORTS0601

http://mb27.scout.com/fgridscapefrm1

http://www.airforcesecuritypolice.com/

Just a quick update. I just got off my first night shift back. It rained, and rained, and rained all night long. Man, I hate rainy nightshifts. You can't hardly see anything from the cruiser on a night like tonight. I was hoping the rain might keep our calls for service down, but no such luck. It was fairly steady all night long. Mainly, though, a lot of 'junk calls'. One bright note, though. An off-duty Deputy from another shift had been scoping out a local fugutive who had gotten away from him earlier, and the off-duty Deputy, along with my Sargeant, and a Drug Task Force Officer were able to creep in on him, and effect his arrest on numerous outstanding warrants, from our county as well as from an adjoining one.

That was probably the highlight of the night. I had to answer one call that was so weird, I can't think of a way to summarize it in any form on this blog that would convey what happened. That's pretty vague, isn't it! I honestly just can't think of a way to put it into words. But, in essence, it was another 'junk call'.

I guess that's about all for now. Let's all pray that Israel gets it's kidnapped soldier back alive. And God Bless all of our brave men and women in harm's way.

Here is an old scanned photo of me at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey in 1984. Just thought I'd throw it in.

As much as I disagree with the Democrats on every level, I'm beginning to think that Al Gore might be onto something with his warnings of Global Warming. Man, it was hot today. My lovely wife, Rusti, and I got out in it for a little while. We had to go to Lowe's to look at tile again. According to our builder, the tile that we had picked out was wall tile (6 x 6). He advised us that we needed to go with a 12 x 12 tile to withstand the weight of the appliances, as well as people walking on it. We found a suitable tile that we liked better than the original, with the exception of it being larger. We also got our bathroom sinks and counter-tops picked out.

Tommorrow, July 4, 2006, the 230th anniversary of our great nation, we are going to Rusti's family renuion in (ugh) Roan Mountain at the Cabins. Last year, at least, my brother-in-law Curtis, was in to attend and moderate the whole affair. He made it alot more fun. This year, he won't be here, so we won't have near as much fun. Happy 4th, Curtis..lol. Naw, all kidding aside, it should be o.k. We're gonna take our little Tommie Girl this year..should be interesting. I wish that I had a big, extended family like that.

I'm gonna post a few more links. I hope everyone has a great 4th!

http://www.cmt.com

http://supertalkwfhg.com/

http://www.wxbq.com

http://www.bobandtom.com

http://www.limewire.com

http://www.woofboard.com/forum/index.php

http://sandgram.blogspot.com/

O.k., another update. Here is an artistic rendering of the front elevation of the house we are building, although ours will look a little different. We went with Jefferson Wade Tudor brick from General Shale with black morter. I know that sounds tacky, but, trust me, it looks GOOD! The brick is already laid, and we are going with white siding to off-set it a little bit. I'm sure that it will look really good.

Well, Good Ole Harv really broke it off in me today. It was like somebody pushed a button at about 12:30 p.m. and the county went crazy! Alot of junk calls, and it seemed like we stayed a call or two behind for the rest of the afternoon. Not to mention the fact that it was, like, 9000 degrees today with about 2000% humidity. Maybe a little bit of an exaggeration, but it was HOT! I worked a burglary towards the end of the shift where a bunch of personal and business checks were stolen, along with approx. $20,000.00 worth of women's jewelry. I had to work over (which I hate, after 12 hours I'm ready to go home!). I got hold of the on-call investigator (who will remain nameless) and explained what I had. Descent crime scene, known probable suspect, etc. He said there was no use in him coming in, and to tell the victim that he would be out tommorrow to obtain prints. Oh well. Glad to put this shift to bed!

I'm gonna post a couple of good links below. Just in case I don't update again before the fact, I hope everyone has a good and safe 4th of July. God bless our founding fathers and our current leadership!

http://www.michaelsavage.com

http://www.drudgereport.com

http://www.cafepress.com/rightwingstuff

http://www.rantburg.com/

http://www.globalsecurity.org

http:///littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

http://cagle.msnbc.com/main.asp