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.

O.k. ... It's only 34 days until my beloved Vols take to the field to kick off their 2006 season. I think this one will be 'make-or-break' for Phil Fulmer. I hope we have a good season. The last few years have been very trying for Vol Fans. Phil's comments during the S.E.C. Media days this year have me scratching my head a little bit, but if you're the optimistic type, maybe there is hope for the season. Our first game, against Cal, will probably define our season. As usual, we have a very tough schedule.

Today is Saturday. The middle day in our set of day-shifts, on the the three day shift portion of our schedule. Yesterday wasn't too bad, except for the heat. Today was weird beyond words. I got involved in a felony theft situation, early in the day. It just kept recurring, and recurring. I ended up making a felony warrant-less arrest. It kept going even beyond that. People are just so weird anymore. I had a single vehicle wreck without injuries, that should have been a routine call, but even that had multiple complilcations. Glad today is over and we have only one more!

Larry and Sandy decided at the last minute to go to Florida for 4 to 6 weeks. My birthday was Thursday, and Larry had me a big fried chicken dinner for my birthday. They announced on Thursday that they were leaving Saturday (which they did). Just seems like bizarre timing. I guess they had their reasons.

I heard from my Brother-in-Law, Curtis on Friday. It was good talking with him. He was in San Antonio, TX, getting ready to fly back to his home in Knoxville. Curtis is really funny, and a blast to be around. Hope he had a good flight. I was telling him on the phone that I had taken a vandalism to a cornfield report earlier in the day, and he thought I was kidding. Unfortunately, I wasn't. It's BIG, Ange, as Barney might have exclaimed. Overall, just a really strange week.

More later, and GO VOLS!!!

It's still a million degrees in this temporary house. The 'landlord' still hasn't seen fit to fix the central heat and air unit. How in the hell does he think that he will sell this place with no heat and air, not to mention all of the other problems with this place?

I haven't updated in a few days. We had a very busy set of night shifts. We acturally had a 'full' shift, which was good, considering the volume of calls for service. We had several 'unusual' calls, but, sorry, I don't feel like fleshing them out here. Suffice it to say, it was a busy week.

As far as our new house goes, they have done alot this week. They got the kitchen cabinets installed, as well as the counter-tops. It looks really good. They also, finally, started installing the siding on the parts that are not bricked. The gas fireplace has arrived and is sitting currently in the garage. Also, they got a significant portion of the hardwood floors laid. The house is really looking good, and taking shape. I can't wait till we get to move in.

I got to talk to my old buddy, Shannon, last night on the one night that thier shift overlaps ours. Shannon works for the Elizabethton Police Department, which I used to work for, before coming back to the Carter Co. Sheriff's Dept. Shannon and I were on the same shift for the longest time, and he was great to work with. He has had some problems with his domestic life over the last year, but he seems to be working through them. Shannon is a survivor, and I'm sure he will do fine. It was good getting to talk to him, though.

Lastly, my Sargeant, and best friend, Tim, finally downloaded America's Army to his computer. We have got to play online together a couple of times on the same server. It has been a blast. He also (due to being a consumate gamer) got me through the final round of the Special Forces Qualification, which has been great. Thanks, Tim!

http://www.americasarmy.com

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.