Sneak Peak

I am building Isabel the most awe-inspiring doll house of all time for Christmas. Actually, I prefer to call it a miniature house because it is significantly less sissy sounding, but either way it is looking pretty dang good so far.

Pumpkin Head

My Peeps

I have spent about 3 minutes at home in the last week. I have been working 12 and 13 hour days. Every time extra work pops up I jump on that stuff like my daughter on a piece of candy. As a little 6 year old boy in Bedias once told me, "Money, Money, Yeah, Yeah!" We have officially thrown ourselves head first into a serious debt elimination action plan I like to call The Beans and Rice Initiative. Hopefully, about a year from this summer we will be free...maybe sooner.

We Love Fall

In the Woods

Quietly, I crunched my way through the woods two evenings ago looking for a young missing girl. I never found the girl, but right there in the middle of all the fast paced, high adrenaline city life, I happened upon a makeshift campsite. There was a tent made of a discarded truck bed-liner with a well-used tarp draped over the top by means of some old half-rotten fence wood, and a fire pit which consisted of bricks and old car parts. A ripped and dirty roll of foam was a bed.


I peered inside the tent and was stunned to see several stacks of books - primarily paperback suspense fiction books - but still there were books...in a homeless guys tent in the middle of a wooded area in the middle of a busy part of the city. Now, this wasn't my first homeless guy, or homeless camp for that matter, to uncover while on duty, but the books were something significantly different. That and a glaringly obvious lack of drained liquor bottles or the various evidences of drug use.


To make a long story short, I went back a few hours later and met the keeper of the books. After introductions were made (and by introductions I mean pointed guns and other unpleasant pleasantries necessary in my line of work), I spent a long time talking with my new acquaintance, David. I learned how he lost his wife to cancer and then in rapid succession lost his job, house, car, motorcycle, relationship with his daughter, and last shred of dignity.


Compassion has never been my strong point and is becoming a less and less familiar trait. So, initially I thought I was feeling an overwhelming sense of compassion for my unfortunate friend. But, as I lay awake both last night and tonight I figured out its not compassion I feel but almost a sense of envy.


I long for his simplicity. His lack of want for trivial things. His focus on the now and attention to things that really matter. He is me with a few minor differences in life's outcomes. And I am well aware I am not too far removed from his condition. Nor do I want to be.


If you pray, pray for David....and us who don't yet live in the woods.

Friends

A couple of days ago we received a call about a group of teenage boys possibly breaking into a house (an exceedingly common occurrence). The complainant who called said they saw some of the boys inside the backyard throwing guns over the fence to the rest of their companions on the other side who were quickly loading them into a vehicle.

When officers arrived at the location there was an Asian male laying on the ground semi-conscious and bleeding profusely from the head. It turns out as a particularly heavy rifle was being tossed over the fence Mr. Bloody-head looked away for a moment and caught the end of the rifle barrel right in the skull. As he lay comatose and bleeding, his partners in crime promptly jumped into their vehicle and cut their losses (namely Mr. Bloody-head).

Mr. Bloody-head then sings like a canary when questioned and all three of his companions were found, in possession of the stolen guns, and arrested. Isn't it nice to have true friends.

Note: If you live in a high crime area and have an arsenal of guns in your house, buy a dang gun safe, fool!

BOLO

Front Lawns are Dumb

I had to buy a new freakin' lawn mower! I took my old one apart twice, cleaned everything sparkly, repaired everything damaged and still no luck. So, I am officially $161 deeper in debt, but at least my useless lawn is socially acceptable. What a waste.