A Day at the Zoo

ALL THE LAKES WERE CROWDED SO WE HIT THE ZOO What a great day we had! Spent about four hours at the zoo. I won't bore you with the details, but we managed to stay ahead of or behind the many "stroller brigades". The highlight of the visit was watching a grandmother, daughter and 4 month old baby orangutan eat, play and nap. The baby was just adorable and fought taking a nap like any other toddler. We never got a picture of the baby but here are some pictures you might enjoy. We especially enjoyed the prairie dog colony - they are so cute!!!!!

Yes, flamingos in Arizona! Can you believe that??? After the zoo, we visited Tuesday Morning, an outlet/closeout store. I had been looking for square melamine dinnerware for the trailer. (All the cupboards are square - why not the dishes?) Would you believe I found them? And in HOT PINK!!! My new decor is going to be navy blue and pink. (in the trailer) Now if I could only find square paper plates. Got any ideas??? Afterwards, we found an outdoor restaurant in Scottsdale and had dinner on the patio. Thank goodness for the Entertainment book - it sure has paid for itself.

Chi Wow Wow Races

I guess you’ve figured out by now that I do not know how to spell that damn dog breed’s name. I could look it up but am too lazy. On Saturday, after Cinqo de Mayo, I headed back to El Zocalo for a little “hair of the dog”. The place is owned by a Mexican couple and his name is (can’t spell this either) Debed. Not the sofa but de bed! I needed a little “hair of the dog” and ordered a Pacifico, a Mexican beer that’s served with a wedge of lime. After pondering about three seconds, I ordered a shot of tequila. Debed (not de sofa) asked me what kind I wanted and I was totally stumped. He has a whole wall with nothing but bottles of tequila. They range from low (but not rotgut – he won’t serve it) quality to exceptionally high quality “sipping” tequila. Now the only tequila I know about is Jose Cuervo and Don Julio – which is what I used to buy every time I went to Mexico. If you want to know a little about tequila, go here: http://www.beerliquors.com/buy/liquors/donjulio.htm. Did you know that tequila can only be manufactured in Mexico and is one of the most pure spirits you can drink? (And all that talk about donkey piss) I asked for a shot of Don Julio and he said – which kind, silver, anejo or real. (Pronounced RE – AL) I asked how much they were. $10 a shot (a SHOT, mind you) for the silver and anejo and $200 for the real. OK, let’s forget about the real. I settled for the $10 shot. I was teased by the other patrons at the bar because I didn’t swig it in one gulp, like gringos do. Instead, Don Julio is a tequila to be savored, just like Grand Marnier. So I did, to the appreciation of Debed. (Not de sofa). OKOKOKOK – I know it’s getting old, I just think it’s so damn funny. Anyway, his wife joined me and we chatted for awhile. (They had donated a dinner for two when I was collecting items for the raffle put on by the Community Policing Advisory Board, of which I am the co-chair.) They are really nice people and treat me especially nice. Then it was off to the chi-wow-wow races for me. What fun that was! The most fun was being surrounded by (mostly) little dogs. A lot of dogs were dressed up in the Mexican style, but lots were not! The lady in this picture was being interviewed by a TV station. There were booths set up that were selling all kinds of “doggy stuff” – clothes, natural foods, sunglasses, photo albums, basically you name it. One item that caught my eye (that I could kick myself for not buying) was a bandana that the collar actually goes through. TiAmo and Taccia hate bandanas that are tied around their necks. There was one little dog that I absolutely fell in LOVE with. It was a miniature Pomeranian. I have never seen a little dog with such an attitude. She would bark at other dogs and you could almost hear her saying “this is MY space – get out”. She just loved people but had such a diva like attitude. “I’m the Princess and don’t you forget it!” I wish I had been able to get a picture of her. Adorable she was!!! The chi-wow-wow races are an absolute hoot! They have 5 or 6 lanes with a person at one end and the owner at the finish line. In some races, none of the dogs will take off. In others, 5 dogs will just sit at the starting gate and one will run. Sometimes the dogs will stop mid-race and pee on one another. I left the races before they were over and went to El Zocalo for dinner and another shot of tequila. My table was ready as soon as I arrived and (no surprise here) it was the best table in the house. My waiter looked like John Travolta’s little brother and the mariachi band was just great. I ordered chili relleno, which seems to be all I ever order at a Mexican restaurant. What I neglected to tell you is what a great place the outside patio is at this restaurant. It’s almost overgrown with bougainvillea, roses, vines and beautiful flowers. The floor is brick and there are fans and misters to keep you cool. The tables are wrought iron with linen tablecloths and the service and the food is great! Sometimes they have a cowboy singer who is an absolute HOOT! He tells stories in between songs. Fortunately I walked to the races and dinner, so I was able to have a couple of gold margaritas (ok – or three or four) and walk home. It was a beautiful night and I didn’t have to work the next day. A great time for me. This is the kid that I danced with all night. He was cute, funny and very, very young. I think I reminded him of his grandmother. At least I've still got some "sass". Cutie pie without his glasses for sure.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo actually fell on a Friday night. The Mexicans have a joke around here that only gringos celebrate the holiday as an excuse to get drunk. At any rate, that's whatcha do, I guess. I was going to meet a friend at a local Mexican restaurant, El Zocalo. (Which is walking distance from my apartment.) She said she would get there about 5:15 and get us a table. I worked kinda late and was on my way when she called and said that there were NO TABLES available and that there was a TWO HOUR WAIT! She put our names in and I decided that we'd go to the Elephant Bar for cocktails and appetizers. It's a great place - decorated like a jungle, but very tasteful and upscale. The door handles are actually bronze elephants. She had coconut shrimp and I had calamari and we each had two Belvedere martinis. MMMMMMM We stayed and chatted for a couple of hours and I couldn't figure out where to go next. Believe it or not, I'm not well acquainted with places to go "out". She decided to call El Zocalo and guess what??? Our table was ready. Since we had already eaten heavy appetizers, we munched on nachos, had a few margaritas and decided to go to another bar where we heard that they had kareoke. Now I LOVE kareoke - to listen OR participate. The people who got up were very good - you could tell they had done their songs before. The problem was that the songs were all current pop songs. I hardly knew a one! Oh well, it was a fun night anyway. More later!

Solo Patrol Assist

Here I am in uniform, in my patrol car ready to go it alone for the first time. I was all excited when the computer displayed "DISPATCHED". I pressed the button to find out what exciting event I had been dispatched to. It was the dispatch crew asking me if I could go get them dinner at Boston Market. What a letdown. Later I got dispatched to an area where 6 cars were parked in a "No Parking" zone. I succeeded in getting 5 of them moved by their owners and wrote my very first citation on the one whose owner I couldn't find. The rest of the night was pretty quiet until around 9:00 pm. A drunk was driving down one of the main roads, endangering other drivers. It took 6 police officers to stop him and he finally ended up crashing into a wall. When I heard what happened on the radio, I put myself "out of service" and headed back to the station. If I had gotten dispatched to that call I would have been out until midnight. I have to work for a living!!!

A Day in the life of a Patrol Assist officer.

I made a promise to myself that I would keep up to date on my blog and post at least once a week. So, here I am. The week was relatively uneventful. I did speak with a guy who is in the Executive’s Association of Greater Phoenix, along with my boss, who owns a big moving company. They have storage facilities throughout Florida and after the conversation with him, I feel a LOT less stressed about the move. Friday after work, I did my Costco and Walmart thing. Saturday am I picked up everything off the floor and vacuumed in preparation for the carpet to be cleaned. I’m afraid that the dogs are having more and more accidents as they get older. I also had the 5’ x 8’ accent rugs cleaned. They were just plain dirty. I think the last time I had them cleaned was a couple of years ago. I had signed up for a shift at the police department from 1600 to 2200 (2pm to 10pm) They ask you to sign up for a minimum of 6 hours, mainly because it takes you 45 minutes to get on the road and another 30 minutes at the end of your shift to file reports, return equipment, etc. So, I sign in and begin the preparation process which I won’t bore you with but it involves obtaining fresh supplies, checking out a citation book, inventorying the vehicle, checking the oil, testing the lights & siren, adjusting the seat, mirrors, etc; logging on to the computer system in the vehicle (for which I had to be certified as a “Criminal Justice Internet System” operator), and basically getting ready to hit the street. I am still in training and have to have a uniform to drive. My uniform won’t be ready until next week, so I rode with another officer named Mike. We weren’t in the car five minutes when we get dispatched to a fire. We get to the fire and our job is to protect the scene and not allow anyone onto the scene or drive over the fire hoses, which are quite expensive. Some punk kid had set the mulch at a playground on fire. The problem was that it was twenty feet from homes and could have spread very rapidly as it was a windy day. Fortunately, it didn’t spread, but the punk destroyed a $30,000 playground that had been built of wood and steel to resemble a tree house. That took us a couple of hours and we arranged to meet up with some officers for pizza around 7. Then, we tagged a couple of abandoned vehicles and ticketed a couple of vehicles for parking in handicapped spots. It was about 6:30, so Mike said “why don’t we head over to Venezia’s?” (the pizza place) I said OK and proceeded to put the code in to dispatch for “on our way to eat”. OOPS. We were a few blocks from the apartment when I realized that I hadn’t taken the dogs out before I left. No problem, I cancelled the “going to dinner” code and put in “out of service” code while I took the dogs for a walk. Then “back in service – but headed out for dinner” code. We go a couple of blocks and UH OH. We see plumes of thick black smoke. We knew it was a residential area, so we headed there and got officially dispatched a few seconds later. It was only about a mile from my apartment, the police station and downtown Chandler. We got there in mere seconds and Mike proceeded to park the car, blocking the road, and started setting out cones. I realized that the fire department was going to be putting their “lines” (a/k/a hoses) out down the street because there was a hydrant there. We guided the fire trucks into the staging area. The fire was literally roaring out of control, and the tension was very high. Sure enough, they put their lines out across a road that wasn’t blocked. People (“lookie loos”) were pulling in from a main road onto this side street to see what was going on. I stood in the middle of the road (yes, I had my police traffic vest on) and stopped vehicles from going any further where they would run over the hose. I made people turn around and go back to the main road. I was pretty proud of myself – they actually did what I told them too. It wasn’t long before I realized that I needed a patrol car at the entrance to the side street to block traffic. The sun was starting to go down and I don’t have an orange cone for my flashlight that is specifically used for directing traffic. I radioed for assistance and within a couple of minutes, a car came and relieved me. So, back to the car blocking the street that the fire was on. A few minutes later (now we’ve been there about 30 minutes so far), a lady came up to us telling us her husband had locked his keys in his car and could we help. “That’s what we do” I told her. Fortunately, Mike volunteered to do it. I’m standing at the car, protecting the scene when a huge truck comes straight at me. Slowly, thankfully. It’s almost upon me before I realize that it’s the fire department’s support truck. Whew!!! I let them run over my cones to the staging area. This is the truck that carries extra oxygen tanks, lighting, water, and extra supplies for the firefighters. We were there about two hours, in all. We can’t leave until all hoses are up and the fire department is leaving. So now, it’s 9:00pm. We put in the “out of service - eating” code and about 8 of us went to the pizza place. Dispatch won’t call you when you’re out of service eating unless it’s a dire emergency. They know that we need nourishment and a break. After eating, we get dispatched to an abandoned car complaint. We write a ticket and a report and are heading back to the station around 10pm. We hear a call for a 962, which is an accident with injuries – usually serious. Since we were the only Patrol Assist vehicle, Mike says “do you want to go, or do you want me to drop you at the station?” I was getting my second wind, so I said “let’s go”. BIG MISTAKE. We head for the accident (which was only about 1 mile west of my apartment) when we get the “ALL PD” message on the computer and tone on the radio. This means only one thing – BIG TROUBLE!!! They are dispatching the entire police department for one reason or another. We soon found out that the accident had knocked out all of the street and traffic lights for about five miles on THE major east/west road – Chandler Blvd. (Where I live) This is major chaos. They assign officers to every intersection to direct traffic. Dispatch couldn’t give us a specific assignment, so we drove to each intersection and spoke to the officer in charge to see what they wanted us to do. Seems that setting out flares and getting traffic vests was the biggest service we could provide. So, starting with the busiest intersection, we parked and set out flares for about 50 yards behind each of four police cars parked at each intersection. We literally ran. We drive back to the station for more flares. We replace the almost spent flares with new ones and set a fresh flare on the end of each active flare so that it will ignite when the other flare starts to burn down. Let me tell you, we had boxes and boxes and boxes of flares in our trunk. When we get the opportunity to take a “break”, we take it in the middle of the intersection with four cops – each directing traffic. Two for north/south and two for east/west. What was truly amazing was how many people driving through the intersection were talking on cell phones. Now this is 1:30 – 2:00 in the morning. Also, I’m sure there were many impaired drivers as the bars let out then. A few people said they “didn’t see the lights” and almost breezed through the intersection. The cops would yell at them “there are four police cars and multiple flares at every dam intersection and you didn’t see the lights???” When I say YELL – I mean in a big, booming cop voice. Long story short, I got home at 4:30 am. So, here I sit at 6:00 in the evening, doing laundry and cleaning house while everyone else is enjoying “cocktail hour”. I didn’t get up until 2:30 in the afternoon. I’m typing this in between my chores of cleaning the floors and doing laundry. I usually am sipping my “Sunday martini” by now. I just ate breakfast at 3:30. Guess the toonie will have to wait for another night. Or…maybe I’ll run a bath and sip it amongst fragrant bubbles. We’ll see. Another promise…future blogs will NOT be as long and they will contain pictures. This and the previous couple of blogs were just to bring you up to date as to what is happening in my world these days.