2008 - The Year That Was

Another year has managed to slip by. This has been a good year for me with several personal and professional firsts for me.

January - A month that started off with great frustration for me at work because, at the time, my assignment was to the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit. I was excited about this new area of traffic enforcement I had never been involved in and I was trying to arrange getting myself trained and certified. But, when my request for training was returned to me un-approved, I was surprised, confused, and frustrated. Why would they create this new position, assign me to it, and then not get me trained and certified to do the job? The excuse given to my supervisor at the time was that the Undersheriff did not feel that we needed to be doing the state's job. (In Florida, the Department of Transportation is usually responsible for CMV enforcement. However, they do contract to counties to help, which was what we were working on doing.) I was soon to learn that the real reason was that the agency had other plans for me.

February - I was transferred to the Technical Services Unit (Geek Squad) as the "Coordinator." This is a euphemism for "supervisor without rank or pay." When asked if I would take this position, I was promised that I would be promoted to sergeant within a year, but probably not until after the election. (This was an election year for all Florida sheriffs, mine included.) I took the position and began the long work of taking a unit that was not well managed or liked and turning it into a professional, respected unit. It took all year, but I successfully got us there.

March & April - Vacation time! In late March, I had the opportunity to go to Virginia to see my daughter appear in the regional finals of the Winter Guard competitions. I had only seen pictures that really didn't convey what was really going on, so I didn't know to expect. But, when I was sitting in the stands watching my beautiful daughter be so graceful and elegant, I was practically moved to tears. What's more, it was obvious that she truly enjoyed what she was doing. They came in 4th place, but she and they were the best in my book. The entire experience is one I will treasure the rest of my life. When I drove home from the competition, I stopped in Atlanta to see my brother's new place. Tim bought a nice three-bedroom house that seems just perfect for him. I only stayed a day, but I knew that I would want to go back there and spend some de-stressing time with my brother. In mid-April, Jamie and I went on our annual vacation which, this year, took us to Seattle and San Francisco. While we had hoped to spend more time with Susie and her man Dan, we knew that her ability to take time off was limited due both to the amount of time off taken in 2007 for Mom and because of a new job. But, we did get to see her at night several times, which was great. Jamie and I enjoyed seeing the sights around Seattle, especially the waterfront. We made some side trips while we were there, one of which was up to Bellingham to see our friends Deck and Alma. We had not seen them since they moved away in early 2003. We had planned to go visit in 2004 after Courtney left, but hurricanes Frances and Jeanne had something to say about that. Anyway, they live in a place called Sudden Valley which is a beautiful area in the mountains. You can get lost in both the true and figurative sense there. Next, we went to San Francisco where we stayed with my Uncle John and his family. It was really great spending time with them and I think my favorite day was when John, Deb, Jamie and I went to wine country (Sonoma) and the picnic under the trees in the middle of the grape vines. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, and extremely relaxing. We ended up buying about $200 worth of really good wine before we left. We also enjoyed visiting around San Francisco, including the cable car museum, Fisherman's Wharf, driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz. I really enjoyed spending time with my cousins Rachel and Aaron. They're great kids and each will become a "someone" in this world. Important someones. Right after returning from this trip, I had to go to Peoria to meet Tim & Sus to pack up Mom's stuff because Mom's place sold. This was more difficult than any of us expected from an emotional point-of-view. But, we got it done in a couple of days and then Tim and I drove the truck for a day down to his house in Atlanta. The truck had taken all day to pack and only two hours to unpack, with only a few minor casualties. But, the job was done and we were all glad to have that behind us. I think it really put closure on Mom's passing.

May - Just after Thanksgiving last year, our dog Dodger died. Well, it was time to get a new dog. Jamie and I had decided to get a beagle this time, so we did some research and found a place called Tampa Bay Beagle Rescue, a dog rescue organization that specializes in beagles. We looked at the pictures and descriptions of the dogs on their web site and decided to go to one of the park play and adoption events to check out three or four we thought we liked. It turned out that we didn't like any of the ones we went there to see, but one liked us a lot. Reno decided he was going to come home with us and wouldn't let any other dogs get close to us without his being in the middle of it. If we went to pet and play with another dog, Reno would push himself right into the middle of it and make sure we remember him. Left with no choice, we decided to adopt him and we're very glad we did. He's been such a joy and much fun since we brought him home. He has fit in very well and I can't imagine his not being here now.

June - Courtney was coming for her annual summer visit, but was bringing her best friend Sasha for the first two weeks. So, I made arrangement for us to spend the first week at Disney and let the girls go be girls for most of the time. We stayed in a very nice apartment-like hotel with three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and a living/dining area. The night of arrival, we went to Medieval Times for dinner and had an absolute blast! The girls were all ga-ga over a couple of the knights and I wouldn't have minded having the company of one or two of the serving wenches! The next two days the girls spent in the parks doing their own thing while I stayed at the room. (This was their trip, not mine.) The third and last day, I went with them and spent the day at EPCOT. It was amazingly uncrowded, especially after a good bit of rain. We were able to practically walk on to any ride we wanted. A good time was had by all, but we were all worn out and tired when we got home.

October - Courtney's 18th birthday. The only thing she said whe wanted was for me to be there to help her celebrate. So, I made that happen. We spent some wonderful quality time together, including a hike up a mountain with her friends, lunch at school, and then a short weekend at Tim's place in Atlanta. She's such a great person and I know that she's going to make something of herself. I'm very proud of her! After spending time with Courtney, I spent the next week hanging out with Tim at his place just "chillaxin" as Courtney calls it. It was just what I needed and it was great spending time with Tim. I look forward to doing it again soon. Jamie managed to fall off her bicycle while we were out for a ride and suffered a minor fracture to a bone in her right hand. She was in a cast for about four or five weeks, which drove her absolutely nuts, but she healed quickly. We haven't been back on the bikes yet both because the doctor didn't want her to for six weeks after the cast came off and because the front brake on her bike was broken in the accident. I'm getting that fixed next week so we should be riding again soon.

November - One of the only problems with Reno is that he is high energy. Being only about a year and a half old, he is still almost all puppy. This is great most of the time, but we need to be able to sit and do what we need/want to do without having Reno in the middle of everything. So, we decided he needed a playmate. Again, we went to the Beagle Rescue. We still went with a handful of profiles of dogs we wanted to see, but this time we went with no illusions that we would be taking one of these dogs home. We were right. The one we ended up with was one we looked at the profile of, but had dismissed. Lucas is not pure beagle and he's about three years old. Reno went with us to be part of the decision and when we saw how much the two of them like to play with each other, we knew we found our new dog. Lucas and Reno get along great, though there are times when Lucas gets tired of Reno's crap and lets him know about it. But, the master plan worked: They play with each other all day long and leave us alone when we want to be left alone.... most of the time. This was also the month that I finally got promoted to sergeant! After 22 years of trying, it finally happened. I'm not stopping there, though. Next step: Lieutenant!

December - Christmas. My Christmas holidays are always better on the years that Courtney gets to come here and this year was no exception. It's so great having her here to spend time with. Having my family, Jess included, together for the day was great and I look forward to doing it again.

So that was they year that was. I think it was a pretty good one. Hopefully, 2009 will be just as good... or better!

Student Arrested for "Farting in Class"

A 13 year old Spectrum High School (in Martin County) student was arrested for "Disrupting a School Function." According to various news accounts, the student started by intentionally and repeatedly farting in class and going around and disconnecting the computers other students were using.

If you look at the comments to this story at www.tcpalm.com, you see that the majority of the posters get stuck on the farting part and completely miss the part about disconnecting the computers. Also, many think that the child should not have been arrested for these acts for one reason or another, but usually either because "he's just a kid" or "it's an alternative school so they should expect bad behavior."

Spectrum High School is a last-ditch effort by the Martin County School District to educate those students who are so misbehaved they have been kicked out of every other school they've been to. When I was in school, there was no "alternative" school such as this. If you screwed up too much, you were expelled and it was your parents responsibility to get the child an education. Martin County, however, started this alternative school in the early 90's and the program has worked amazingly well. However, when kids are sent to this school, they are told that bad behavior will not be tolerated. The next step for them is expulsion and, possibly, arrest. The school has a strict zero-tolerance rule. Most of the kids here know there's nothing left for them after this because, if they get expelled, the only other option is private school, which their parents can't afford.

The child was arrested for "Disrupting a School Function." This was mainly the result of turning off the other student's computers, not because of the farting. The farting was only a small part of the overall picture. Naturally, the mainstream media zeroed in on that part of the story because that's the sensational part. They completely glossed over the actual disruption to the other students. Irresponsible reporting at it's very best.

The student will very likely be expelled after this incident, and rightfully so. The parents created this monster, let them fix it. But, they'll probably sue the school system and the Sheriff's Office. They'll probably get some good money out of it, too, thanks to our screwed up tort system, but that's another blog entry.

Bailout of the Auto Makers

The big three automakers showed up in Washington last week in three different private jets with their hats in their hands asking the American people to bail them out of the financial mess they created for themselves over the last decade or so. Congress, in an unusual display of common sense thinking, sent all three packing with the directive not to come back until you have a plan.

All three American automakers chose to shift the majority of their production to SUV's and large trucks because that's where the money was. They failed to follow the rule that any good investment manager will tell you to live by: Diversify! Don't put all of your economic eggs in the same basket. In doing so, they set themselves up for this failure.

It would be easy to just let them fail in hopes that they'd learn a thing or two. The problem is that the failure of the automakers wouldn't just hurt the automakers and their employees, but it would have a far reaching ripple effect across the US and the world. Ford is in less bad shape than GM and Chrysler. However, because none of the three have a balanced line up of cars available and won't for at least another year, and they're burning up money just operating, all three will need to file for Chapter 11 protections in order to simply operate until the new lines of cars come out. The unions will need to come up with some significant concessions including huge cuts in retirement benefits. (If retired airline pilots and live on half their retirement, so can retired auto workers.) Lastly, the automakers need to make a reliable line of quality high-mileage cars.

All of this can be done without a single dollar of taxpayer money. The automakers are going to be hurting for a few years and, unfortunately, their suppliers and everyone in that food chain will be hurting for a few years. But, they'll be better better managed and be in a better position to be profitable in the future.

Blog Beginnings

The time has come for me to put my thoughts and opinions down and share them with others. I'm sure that some will read what I have to say and agree. Others will not. I encourage comments as long as they are polite. If you're just going to call me names or use baseless arguments, then please don't bother responding. If you want to have a meaningful and intelligent conversation, I'm ready to debate.

Let the fun begin!