I see dead...defendants!

It has been rather crazy at work these days. It seems that with the approach of Spring, everyone gets outside to smell the fresh air, look around, soak up the sunshine, and bitch about their neighbors. The complaints are piling up.

I try to be understanding with people. Especially in this economy. It is not that people want to do things wrong, sometimes they just are against a wall. In any event, my job is to look at things fairly and objectively. If it is against the law I am bound to take action. I always give warnings first. Fail to correct the issue and I am forced to write a summons.

The first defendant decided about a year ago to build a pigeon coop...out of scrap material.....in his front yard. Needless to say, the neighbors are not exactly happy. After several warnings I was forced to write tickets. I went to the house to serve them and was greeted by the daughter-in-law. She advised me that the man I wrote, passed away roughly 4 months ago. Luckily she accepted responsibility since she never wanted it there to begin with.

Case 2: Business here has sidewalks that are busted up and uneven. Since it is a heavy pedestrian traffic area we warned them and then wrote summonses when the warnings went unanswered. When we served the tickets, the man who accepted them, who is not even the responsible party, burst out in tears and literally broke down crying hysterically. I pray he gets therapy and is not suicidal. One death is enough.

The next violator is a business owner. 2 years ago the municipality passed an ordinance which required all electric box signs must be removed on every business. No exceptions. This stemmed partly from the death of a fireman who was electrocuted to death when he touched one. It also is because the powers that be feel they look tacky. All signs were to be down by January 1, 2010. That was extended to this year because of the economy. We are going after the vacant stores first. I sent a letter to Mr. H advising him to take care of his stores. He called me and assured me he would remove them by last Tuesday. When that day came and went, I was ordered to write summonses. When we went to serve them to him last night, his wife broke down in tears and told us that Mr. H died about a week ago. Hmm...I am sensing a trend here.

Then we come to the fourth case. Also last night. Accessory apartments are legal here provided you get a permit. This home has had one up until 4 years ago. Letter after letter has gone unanswered to renew. The previous inspector simply ignored it. I finally took action and wrote the tickets. Go to serve them and get told by the daughter who now owns the home that she bought the house about a month ago when her dad passed away. Grrrr.....

Talking to our prosecutor today I was explaining to him about chasing ghosts lately. His response was, "Tom you seem to be a jinx and people you deal with in court end up dead. I don't think I feel comfortable talking to you." I know he was just kidding but, I think I may make his statement turn true when I beat him to death!......tm

It must be Monday......

I have never been a fan of Monday. It is days like today that remind me why. It started off like pretty much every other day. With the small exception of needing to get my body to acknowledge the time change. I got dressed and made it to work on time. My coffee was good and I was getting things done. And then in walked Mrs. F.

Apparently Mrs. F is not capable of understanding why she is not allowed a third kitchen in her home. She did file the papers for permission for it, but she was denied by the board. As we always do, we sent out her denial to her. This morning she decided to come into the office to scream at me for it. I am used to upset people bitching at me. I can handle it. I remained calm and advised her that she had two choices. She could comply and remove the kitchen or she could contact an attorney and that she may have legal avenues she can follow. Neither option was what she wanted to hear.Eventually she did leave but, was definitely not happy.

About an hour later I was outside in the parking lot. I car pulled up and the driver was asking me some questions. I noticed a second vehicle pull into the lot at a rather high speed. The driver of that vehicle got out of the car and came over to me screaming like crazy. I was trying to calm this person down so I could understand the problem. She would just not stop. She kept getting right into my face and spitting at me. Despite repeated efforts to back her off and calm down, she persisted. I was able to piece together that she is the daughter of Mrs. F from this morning. I excused myself from the driver that I was originally talking to and concentrated on the irate woman. She stormed off at one point and when the Tax Assessor came out the side door she went off on him. The poor man is in his late 80s and is in really poor health. The last thing he needed was to be badgered over something he has nothing to do with. So, I walked over to retake control of the situation. At that point she was back to spitting in my face and then she grabbed me. She did not want to let go. Now, I certainly was not about to punch this woman but, I also do not like being grabbed. Especially on a flight of stairs. I told her to let go of me immediately or I would be calling the Police. One of my other co-workers came outside and dragged me inside. They knew at this point I was pissed. I do not blame them for removing me from the situation.

Someone who happened to be witnessing the whole scene did notify the police. They showed up quickly and took control of the scene. I did not go back outside but, I heard that she continued to carry on and eventually was in tears. The officer did manage to calm her down and he sent her on her way. I filed an incident report within my own department and I will leave it at that. She did not harm me in any way so I will not bother pressing charges. Hopefully she went home and seriously thought about how bad that could have turned out if I had her arrested. Though somehow I doubt she did.....yep, it is Monday!

Music 4 My Monday

Thought 4 My Thursday

Even the strongest rock will crumble 

if neglected long enough.

If you do nothing but put more and more of your load on the rock that makes your foundation in life and never take a minute to make sure your rock is not cracking or overwhelmed, you will soon find yourself flat on your back, surrounded by the dust that once was that rock......

Some bands should never perform live, but......

not in the case of Bon Jovi. Friday night my wife and I headed into New York City to catch his concert. I have never been a big fan but, the wife is. When the chance came along to get the tickets she was like a kid on Christmas morning. I agreed to buy them for her. Originally I suggested she get her sister to go along. It didn't work out. So, I ended up going with her.

I decided to really make a date out of this. I had off on Friday and so did she. I took her out for a nice sushi dinner before we hopped on the train into the city. We got to NYC a little early so we grabbed something from Starbucks and walked up 7th Ave and back down 8th until it was time to head to Madison Square Garden for the show. We were off to the side of the stage in what turned out to be really amazing seats. See the pics below.

For weeks before the concert my kids and I had been teasing her saying things like, "Bon Jovi called off his show due to illness. We are seeing the Wiggles instead!" When the 7:30 scheduled start time came and went, I started to wonder if maybe I was going to be right. At 8:00 the lights went down and the band took the stage. The sold out crowd went nuts. What happened after that turned out to be one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Second only to Phil Collins. Bon Jovi performed for over 2 hours, pretty much non stop. He said good night at about 10:15. The lights went dark and stayed that way for about 5 minutes. The crowd was going nuts. He came back out and did 3 encores for a total of another hour of nonstop music. All totaled he and the band gave us over 3 hours of the most amazing singing and the band was awesome.

If Bon Jovi ever plays in your area, the effort to get tickets is totally worth it! If you ask my wife, just watching him shake his butt was worth the price. lol I am still catching myself humming his songs now. I hear him on the radio and actually think he sounds better live.

When Men Bake Cookies

This is what happens when a man finds your heart shaped cookie cutter!

This could very well be my year!

Every year people all over the world say the same thing, "This is going to be my year!" I know I do it. Well, this year could be that year.

For the last few years at work I have watched one of the people that have been there for years, get away with doing less and less. It seemed he would spend the majority of his time working on his own personal matters and his work load was getting pushed off. So, when he announced that he planned to retire in November, no one was going to stand in his way. He furthered the effort by asking the administration if he could retire and then come back as a part timer. He said he would have no problem doing the job in 15 hours a week. That was the ultimate slap in the face to the municipality. Suddenly everyone was asking why he was being paid full time for a job he now says he could do in less than half the time? This was the chance I needed.

I put together a presentation which showed the municipality how they could save close to $60,000 a year by consolidating several areas in the department. Part of that was by allowing me to take on the other guy's work. I would still do my job, but I would incorporate his into my day as well. I have covered for him in the past when he was on medical leave anyway so I knew I could handle the added load. It took some negotiations, but I am happy to say that as of January 3rd, I am now in the new title of "Senior Inspector" I am keeping up with all of the work and things are actually streamlined more efficiently for the public. And the best part of it all is I got a salary increase of 33% to go with the new title. I have also been promised another $5,000 a year within the next 2 years. This is above and beyond any contractual raises. Sure my day is a little more hectic, but it is all quite worth it.

Since I have more or less relieved my wife of the responsibility of managing the budget, things are looking a lot brighter. Her "creative accounting" methods always had us behind. Of course she is tossing one wrench into the works already but, I refuse to allow it to take away from finally getting ahead. I plan to use some of this new income to take my kids back to Disney in 2012. That should put a smile on their faces! :)

Music 4 My Monday

I have not posted on this theme in awhile. When I heard this song recently I knew I just had to share it. When I heard it I imagined it more as a love song, but having seen this video it made me realize that it is so much more than that.

We tend to take for granted the people that give us that freedom. They are miles from home in places where they are hated just because of the flag they wear on their sleeve. They didn't have to do it. They chose to. Think about that for a minute.....they CHOSE TO! They know the risks involved. They know that freedom is not free. Yet, back home we all just go about our lives without ever so much as a thought to the soldiers until we hear some story on the news.

In the next couple weeks, the son of my best friend will leave his small town in the heartland of America and travel to Iraq. Why? Because he CHOSE to serve his country. Because he CHOSE to give of himself so that the rest of us could be FREE! Free to enjoy our lives. "Free as we'll ever be"

May God be with you Kody. May He be by your side always and protect you as you allow the rest of us to enjoy the freedom you believe so much in. I look forward to the day you return and get to enjoy that freedom with us. I know I am one American that is proud of you and those that have gone before you, and those that will go after you.



"Free" (Official Music Video)

Zac Brown Band | Myspace Music Videos

What's your sign? I used to be a Cancer

I am not one to put much faith in Signs of the Zodiac. I will read my horoscope sometimes or those descriptions of the characteristics of my sign. Purely for fun. I don't live by them. Being born on July 8th, I am a Cancer. Wait, let me correct that. I used to be a Cancer. It seems I am now a Gemini. 

Not being an Astrologer, I will not pretend I understand the reasons for the changes. I just heard that some group has declared that since the Earth has shifted, there is a need to adjust the dates for the Astrological Signs. And as if that was not confusing enough, they added a 13th sign. Boy did that screw things up.

This is the Zodiac as some astrologers believe it should be:

ARIES = APRIL 19 - MAY 13
TAURUS = MAY 14 - JUNE 19
GEMINI = JUNE 20 - JULY 20
CANCER = JULY 21 - AUG 9
LEO = AUGUST 10 - SEPTEMBER 15
VIRGO = SEPTEMBER 16 - OCTOBER 30
LIBRA = OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 22
SCORPIO = NOVEMBER 23 - NOVEMBER 29
OPHIUCHUS = NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 17
SAGITTARIUS = DECEMBER 18 - JANUARY 18
CAPRICORN = JANUARY 19 - FEBRUARY 15
AQUARIUS = FEBRUARY 16 - MARCH 11
PISCES = MARCH 12 - APRIL 18

Read more: Ophiuchus - The 13th Sign of the Zodiac 2011

To really confuse things, if you start to look at the date ranges, there is a drastic difference among each sign. Virgo spans 45 days while Scorpio only spans 6 days. If you notice, Ophiuchus is the newest sign. The odd thing about Ophiuchus is that while the other 12 signs are based on a stellar constellation, the 13th is based on a real person from ancient Egypt.

So, what was your sign before and what have you now become?

Wait, you said how much?

Don't get me wrong, I love snow. At least some snow. Tonight we are supposed to get anywhere from 12" to 20" of the white stuff though. That gets to be a bit excessive and hard to cope with. It makes it difficult to get to work. If I was going to  be home tonight I would not care. Just like the day after Christmas when we got about a foot. I was home, work was canceled on Monday, and I had no place important to be. Tonight is a bit different.

Tonight I have to be at the other municipality from 8:30 to 3:30 AM. Then I am due back at the first municipality tomorrow at 8 AM. I normally get home by 4 AM and get about 3 hours sleep in between. This is after working all day Today. Now toss in the snow. I will be lucky to get home by 4:30. Then I will have to be up by about 6 in order to dig out and be on the road. Of course I am assuming the plow will have at least made one pass on my street. Last time it snowed, we did not see a plow until Weds night some time. Luckily most of the neighbors had driven up and down and at least compressed the snow enough to drive on by Tuesday morning.

My choices are this, go home in between and hope for the best. Or, I can leave the night job and drive straight to the day job. I have a key to the building so I am able to get inside. And I could probably get a couple hours sleep on the floor. And while the latter may sound like the better option, I have to consider that work may be canceled tomorrow. If that happens I would be stuck driving the 20 miles home and still unsure if the street was plowed enough for me to get to my house. I guess I will have to wait and make my decision as the night wears on and base it on the weather.

on a side note: My younger son turns 15 today. Happy Birthday MyTy! (Yes it is just a nickname. lol)

Hope this is not too steamy

My Romance Novel, modern day version

   

    He grasped me firmly but gently just above my elbow and guided me into a room, his room. Then he quietly shut the door and we were alone. He approached me soundlessly, from behind, and spoke in a low, reassuring voice close to my ear.

   
    "Just relax."
   
   

    Without warning, he reached down and I felt his strong, calloused hands start at my ankles, gently probing, and moving upward along my calves slowly but steadily. My breath caught in my throat. I knew I should be afraid, but somehow I didn't care. His touch was so experienced, so sure. When his hands moved up onto my thighs, I gave a slight shudder, and partly closed my eyes.

   

    My pulse was pounding. I felt his knowing fingers caress my abdomen, my ribcage. And then, as he cupped my firm, full breasts in his hands, I inhaled sharply. Probing, searching, knowing what he wanted, he brought his hands to my shoulders, slid them down my tingling spine and into my panties. Although I knew nothing about this man, I felt oddly trusting and expectant.

   
    This is a man, I thought. A man used to taking charge. A man not used to taking `no' for an answer. A man who would tell me what he wanted. A man who would look into my soul and say ...







"Okay, ma'am,".

"All done." "You can board your flight now."

(Sorry. I could help but to share this with you. I laughed my @$$ off)

Happy New Year

I am not normally one to make resolutions for the New Year. However, this year I think I will give it a shot. I hereby resolve to stop letting people walk all over me in life. So, if you happen to be one of them be forewarned! lol

Let me hear what your resolution is. In 3 months we can all look back and see how well we did.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

If this doesn't warm your heart nothing will.

This was one of those "flashmob" events. At a set time all of the participants began to sing at the Orlando Airport. They watched for a signal given by a conductor on balcony above. Look at the faces of the other people around them. Not one person is annoyed or bothered by it. Perhaps there is hope for Christians after all.

Just something to make you stop and think....

It's getting a wee bit c-c-cold.

Things are calming down a bit since the media has backed off on beating me up. It was getting rather overwhelming for awhile. Of course that leaves me time now to worry about other issues. Like the fact that our 42 year old oil burner decided to drop dead. Ok maybe not dead but more like it has a problem with incontinence. It leaks water so bad that there if I try to get heat out of it, the basement gets flooded and there is still no hot water circulating in the baseboards. Since I own a duplex, the house has 2 burners. The first one went last winter and I was able to get that one replaced. We had the installer give us a decent price since we knew they both had to be done. Unfortunately, finances limited us to just the one at the time. I knew that come December I would be able to arrange for the cash to do the one for my side of the house. Of course my burner decided to quit before that money came.

We have been using electric space heaters in the meantime. They help a bit, but it still gets a bit cold when the temps are below freezing outside. I am dreading my electric bill next month! The only good thing is I am still able to turn on the burner when I need hot water for showers. My co-workers are happy about that too I am sure!

I am not a Scrooge....

My job year round is life safety. I get paid to protect the public. I do my job year round. There is no holiday for safety concerns. Christmas time is no exception. Recently I received a complaint from a concerned citizen about the potential for someone to either be electrocuted or run over by a car. I did my job and responded to the complaint. I found that the complainant has valid concerns. Illegal electrical wiring has been run both underground and above ground. Some of it attached to a metal chain-link fence. Other wiring buried under the municipal right-of-way and attached to a public utility pole. In addition, materials have been placed in that right-of-way which forces pedestrians to have to step out into traffic to pass by. The owner of the house has several times in the past been warned and asked to correct the issue. They apparently chose not to listen. The only option left is to issue summonses for the violations. No big deal right? In fact at any other time of year I would be thanked for doing my job.

Apparently, the minute you plug any type of Christmas decoration into the electrical wiring, it no longer becomes a problem. That is the situation here. The material blocking pedestrians is an over abundance of Christmas decorations. The entire front lawn and house is covered. It actually looks quite pretty. However, the basic facts remain that there is a safety issue here. The permanent electrical wiring was installed illegally. There is no electrical inspection certificate of compliance. Not to mention, it was installed on municipal property without the permission of the municipality. In addition the homeowner took it upon themselves to also extend the decorations in front of the neighbor's home. Suddenly I am public enemy number one. I have news vans all over the place. All of them reporting on how the government has something against holiday decorations. There are pages of nasty uninformed comments on Facebook bashing me. The phones are ringing like crazy because someone posted the number online so people can call and tell us what they think. They are talking about going to the Mayors house in mass and one person is trying to rally the masses to protest at my home.

Luckily the people I answer to where I work understand the situation. I reached out to them before I wrote the summonses. I knew this would be a subject that had the potential to explode. And that it did

I have nothing against Christmas or the decorations that come with it. In fact I decorate my own home. Not to this extent but, I do put up lights. I am always the first in the office to put up decorations in the office and play the holiday music. Despite what you may see on the news,and this story will probably go national so you will probably see it on your news, I am not a grinch. Merry Christmas!

This scene always makes me cry

I am sure at least a few of you remember the show Ally McBeal. I used to love the show. There was just something about the characters that kept me interested. Back in 2001 there was a Christmas episode that had me crying my eyes out. And to this day I can not help the tears whenever I watch it.

This was 2 months after 9-11. The show typically tried to keep up with real life current events. They wanted a way to reach out to the audience and deal with 9-11 and the sadness, but did not want to be so direct in their approach. I can only assume they felt it was just too soon. So, what they did was write a story about a small town outside of Boston where a tragic fire killed a number of firemen. The town council cancelled the holiday parade becuase they felt celebrations would not be appropriate so soon after a tragedy. A local man felt otherwise and took the town to court. He won. The town held it's parade, but in a way that remeberence was the main theme.

On a second story thread in that episode, Josh Groban played a teen who had just lost his mother. He would always sing for her. When she died he stopped singing. No one could convince him otherwise. Eventually he agrees and appears in church on the same night of the parade.

Before you watch this clip, take a moment and think back to 2001 and what you felt in your heart that year. Once you are there, click play on the video below. If the little boy carrying his daddy's fire helmet does not make you cry, I don't know what ever will........

How NOT to be a good parent....

days like this are never easy

There are some days where being a dad is just so hard. My oldest son Kevin had a car accident today. He pulled out on a corner and a woman plowed into the passenger side of his car. Luckily no one was injured. I can not say the say the same for his car. It is T-boned on that side. There is no way he can continue to use the car.

I am sitting here thanking God that my son is fine. At the same time just the stress of now having to deal with insurance companies and having to go back to driving him around is bringing me down a bit. Even those are minor compared to the feeling of sadness I have for Kevin. He is upset that he no longer has a car. He feel awful that he had the accident to begin with. I can not help but feel sad right along with him. Not to mention that the mind now starts to go thinking about "what if". I just want to cry right now.

I know that life will go on. And one day this will just be a memory. I am telling myself everything I would be telling anyone else. Yet I just can not help it. Sigh........

Catching up

It has been a really busy couple months in my life. With the kids back in school and all of those activities that come along with it, and add in a wife that works and is a full time college student, you can imagine that I have very little "me" time.  When I do seem to have a few minutes to sit by the computer, I have a habit of dozing off.

I did get a bit of a reprieve 2 weeks ago when I headed to Charlotte, NC for an annual business meeting. Some of you probably saw my drunk blog from there. Even though it is a work conference, there is plenty of fun time built in.

We arrived in Charlotte on Saturday morning. The Hilton hotel where we stayed was gorgeous. After walking around a little bit it became evident that Charlotte is not what I am accustomed to in a city. It is made up primarily of hotels, office buildings and parking garages. There were some places to eat. What it lacked was any type of retail stores.

Sunday was the first official day of the conference. It kicked off with a golf outing. What a beautiful day that turned out to be. The weather was spectacular. I was actually in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. The course was amazing and we played really well. I am not an avid golfer but I love the game. I always worry a little bit when I play in these events because my skills could use some fine tuning. Luckily I played awesome that day. You could never guess I don't play all that often. Sunday night we headed to a local bar where it was a "meet the candidates" meet and greet. I had a few drinks and ate some great food. I stayed fairly sober. lol

Monday was the opening meeting which was fine, but not the reason I was looking so forward to that day. It also happened to be the night of the welcome event. This year the event was in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. I was in my glory! I got free admission into the Hall and got to do all the interactive stuff there. Add in the open bar and buffet that we had in the lobby area and it was a perfect evening. In all my years of attending these conferences, this was by far my favorite welcoming event. My son thought I was going to be total redneck when I got home. lol

Tuesday was the annual business meeting and elections. The morning was filled with speeches and campaigns. It may look boring on C-Span but, being there you can not help but get caught up in the whole process. We had a nice lunch and then I had the afternoon free. That night was delegate photos and the exhibitors reception. Again with a bar and buffet. this is where the trouble started. Every year, the New York delegates ( I am one of them) hosts a hospitality suite. We do it in conjuction with a few other states. This year it included NC, ND, RI, UT, KY and I think NJ. We had an open bar and some snack foods. I admit to getting totally smashed this year. Thankfully my room was only 8 floors up. I will not get into details here. Let's just say I ended up making the swear "Dear God. Let me live through this and I will never drink again!" I lived. So far I have been pretty much sticking to the promise. I will probably keep that promise......till next years conference in Phoenix AZ!

Overall, I had an awesome time in Charlotte. I brought home a lot of great memories and a bunch of pictures.

 

This was Saturday. You know where I was on Monday!

 

I managed to change the tire in just over 20 seconds. 

Guess I should not get a job with a pit crew!

 

At the trade expo on Monday

 

I had such an awesome time here!

 

That's my favorite!

They have actual cars sitting up on the track that wraps around the ramp to the second floor.

the track display. All full size cars.

 

This was the simulator area. You sit in the car and drive a simulator.

I managed a 1:00.564 lap time at Talladega!

This was actually after more than half the people left.  

And before you ask, the lady in the lower right was dancing to the DJ. lol