Good Night

I had a good night tonight.
At about ten o’clock , a girl that came in who, I thought, was a sister of a frequent guest we are familiar with. This girl’s sister has always been a problem, and was high most times she was brought in. I asked the new booking if she had a sister, and she told me that the person I was thinking of was probably her. NO,
I thought, The girl I was thinking of was skinny, had an attitude, and was most likely getting high as we spoke. The girl in front of me was heavier set, was smiling, and had called the police from our lobby to have them arrest her so she could take care of an old warrant. Not the actions of the person I was thinking of; NO WAY WAS THIS THAT PERSON
I looked up the girl’s name, and was absolutely blown away to see that indeed the person I was thinking of was actually the person standing in front of me. She was obviously clean, as in not high in a long time. To say the least, I was amazed, as in “Jaw on the ground” amazed.
Throughout the booking process we talked, and I found that she had moved to Tacoma and had gotten a good paying job while on a State Work Release program. She had been clean for about nine months. (She knew the exact number of days, as most recovering addicts do.) She was involved in a steady and healthy relationship, and turned herself in because she knew she had “one last warrant in Longview.” The officer who brought her in, said the he hadn’t ever picked up someone who wanted to go to jail in order to take care of an old warrant. He was about as amazed as I was when I showed him her old booking photos.
She even took vacation time from her job in order to come to jail. I would say that this is not really the same person I remember. I probably told her about ten times that I couldn’t believe it was actually her. She seemed proud of herself, and almost proud to be in jail. No, the person she said she was, through hard work and discipline, no longer exists.
As an officer who has been in the Jail for around 5 years, I have gotten to know many many inmates. Most of us remember them by name, and a great deal return again and again. Usually, the charges against them get more serious, and the inmate that keeps returning, either goes to prison for a good deal of time or they end up dead. I was sure, before tonight, that this girl was going to be one of these statistics.

There aren’t many happy endings in my job. It is usually just more of the same drudgery every day. Drugs. Alcohol. Assault. These things become common when they should be remarkable, and mundane when they should shock. Tonight, I was genuinely happy to see her doing so well, and know that there was at least one more happy ending to so many sad starts.

I don’t yet know what will come of the warrant, but if the judge remembers at all who this person used to be, I would be surprised if it didn’t make an impression. I know that it did for me.

Case of the Mondays

Someone once said “Looks like you’ve got a case of the Mondays”, and today, they could have been talking to me.
Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, and Bitch.

So, with all of the bitching out of the way, I wanted to talk about my new dog, Rocky.
He really is a great puppy. I just don’t know how to get him to stop biting everyone and everything that moves. He absolutely loves following my son around and yanking on whatever is in his hands. It is pretty funny, except that he doesn’t differentiate between what is IN his hands and his ACTUAL hands. With his needle-like teeth, Seth is commonly yelling “NO” at Rocky, because he hears daddy say that, and so it should work for him too. Unfortunately, when Seth says, “no”, it sounds more cute than forceful. Rocky just thinks that a “no” coming from Seth means “bite me some more, please”.
Ryleigh loves to dress up in her “princess dresses”, and most of them are the flowing, frilly, lacy kind. The kind that seem to scream at my little puppy to run up to them and grab them and pull on them with his teeth with all of his little puppy might. I can’t very well tell Ryleigh to stop playing dress-up, but at this rate, I will owe her one new dress every other week due to “Puppy damage”. ( I use “quotes” a LOT it seems)
Anyway, I really do love this dog. It’s funny that I seem to hate him so much too. Mostly, he just hangs out on my lap or beside me and sleeps. I like that. He is mostly lazy, but when he gets in his moods, there is almost nothing that can be done to get him to stop biting. I have tried the little love pats on his chest to get him to stop, and also the yelling. He seems to mildly respond to my snapping my fingers at him, but even this is hit or miss.
Is this a phase, or am I going to be fighting with this forever. How can I help my new puppy learn that biting people and the things on people is not alright? If there is ANY doggy wisdom out there, please let me hear it.

It is currently 3am, and as I wrap up this post I hope to get to sleep soon. Too bad I’m out of my prescription…

Semi-New Scheme… and cheese.

If you read this blog regularly, you will probably realize that things might look a liiiittle different. Yeah, I changed the background images. Previously, I was using a background called “Scribe” that was offered from Blogger.com, and I decided to change it so that almost everything on the site now is mine. There are still a few images that have been taken from various other places, but now the bulk-o’-the-content is ALL MINE.. (*wrings hands in maniacally*)

Post a comment below to let me know what you think.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. I wanted to let you all know that my night at the hospital was uneventful, except for having to endure some “GRADE A BS” from the inmate. Although, it was interesting to actually “Behold the power of cheese”.

I totally stole this post

I was perusing the internet today and stumbled upon this gem that I have read before. I don’t think it is new, but it is still funny. Enjoy.

After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a “gripe sheet” which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems; document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, Qantas is the only major airline that has never had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what they’re for

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last.

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.

S: Took hammer away from midget.

I know that most people have no clue what the insi…

I know that most people have no clue what the inside of a jail looks like, and hopefully most of you won’t ever have to find out. Our “New Jail” is considered state of the art, even though it is cheap in comparison to most new jails. Even though it is new, it still isn’t fun to be there for inmates.
When I think of it though, I will probably spend more time in jail than every inmate there. I just get a furlough after every shift. Here’s the math:
If I consider that I will work 5 days a week for 51 weeks a year (1 week for vacations) I will be in jail for a total of 90 days each year. I have worked at the jail for about 4.5 years so far, so I have spent about 400 days in jail. If I work that out to 30 years (I can retire at age 65), then I will have spent a total of 7 years and 4 months.
Now, of course, I can quit at any time, and I do get paid, but I also have to be around and deal directly with convicts for 7 years of my life.
Weird, huh?
The interesting thing is that no offender will ever do 7 years in a county jail. Jails are really just holding or detention centers for people awaiting trial or for misdemeanor sentences. Misdemeanors typically get less than a year because any sentence over a year gets sent to prison. Some misdemeanor offenders actually request a year and a day sentence because they have much better living conditions in prison than they do in jail.
I have seen a few people that have spent a couple of years waiting for trial, and even a few that have gotten two consecutive sentences of less than a year. Consecutive sentence means that when they are done with one sentence, they have to turn around and serve the next one right after that. Most people get “concurrent sentences”, which means that they may have gotten two or three sentences for 9 months each, but since they are concurrent, they will get to serve all of them at the same time. If there is one for 6 and one for 9, then they will serve 9 since that is the longest, but since it is concurrent, they are serving the 6 month sentence as well.
Personally, I think that all sentences should be consecutive. It seems like a gimme from the courts when a felon commits 5 crimes in one night, but since they are all related they get to only have to do the longest sentence. I am no lawmaker, but this seems like a freebie that is unjustified.
If you have any ideas about what should be done, let me know, and drop me a comment.