Play Break

OK, so I have today off from work and that's all well and good. But I can't help but think that it's fundamentally wrong that I'm doing more work today than I have all damn week.

This past week at work was mostly just "busy" work. Doing stuff on the computer, making some phone calls, sorting files that need to go to my successor and things like that. I even went on a number of calls with the guys on the street (not because I had to, but because it was a cheap excuse to get out of my office). But for all the "busy" work I did, I was pretty far from over-working myself. Hey, it was my last week in my office, I fell into total slacker mode.

So now I'm off today, which is very cool since I have a lot of stuff around the house to catch up on. I got started awhile ago with the usual laundry and junk like that. After my second cup of coffee I decided to finally get my ass outside and start tackling the yard work (which there is never any shortage of). Can I just tell you all how much I hate doing yard work? Well, it's not so much that I hate it. When I'm out mowing and all that, I see instant results and the joint looks good again. I like that aspect of it. I don't like that it seems to take the better part of forever and that it's still around 90 degrees outside. Got the front yard mowed and came inside for a much needed bottle of water. Listened to a message on my machine and now I'm waiting for a friend to call me back (I hate it when you return messages within a couple of minutes and get that "Hey, let me call you right back" bullshit. That was 15 minutes ago...still waiting). So I figured while I'm sitting here waiting around, I'd type some nonsense on here.

Tonight is a party up in Baltimore which should be a good time. Tomorrow is a trip to Home Depot so I can get some paint for the master bedroom and some other junk. I still have no idea what color I want to paint it, so hopefully it won't take too long to sort that part out. Then I get to spend the better part of the day doing my "inside" work. Everything is coming along nicely, but not nearly as fast as I'd like it to. I'm impatient that way. Then tomorrow night I'm going over to my brother's house to hang out for a bit and we'll probably head out to Bethesda for a beer or four.

It should be a fun and productive weekend. I hope so anyway. I can't believe that the summer is almost over. It's flown by. I'm looking forward to getting into the fall season ('cause that means HOCKEY!), and things cooling off and, hopefully, slowing down a bit.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Check back next week since I'm sure that my first couple of days back on the street will be chocked full of stupid criminal stories.

Quick Update

It's 2AM and I'm just getting settled back home from work. It's been a long week. I get to spend tomorrow cleaning out my car and my desk. My transfer is effective Monday morning at (ugh) 5AM. I take over my new patrol squad then. I will require insane amounts of coffee, but I think it will be fun. Of course, between the vacation that I'm taking and the two weeks of training I have next month, I'm working all of 7 shifts with my new squad the entire month. "Hey guys, I'm happy to be here, now look after yourselves for awhile. See you in October." Hell of a first impression, I think.

Anyhow, I'm tired as hell and need to get back up again in the morning. Time for a beer and some sack time. I'll check back in soon. Sorry for the 6 day delay.

Taking the Good With the Bad

Interesting goings on at work lately. Lots of closed-door discussions among the command staff. The rumor mill is operating at 150%. Word on the street is that there are several changes forthcoming. The whole place is buzzing. Don't you just love this shit?

Of course, I normally pay little to no attention to that kind of stuff since it rarely affects me. Although, this time it seems that it will. Nothing has been said "officially," it sounds like yours truly is about to be transferred.

I was approached last week by one of my Lieutenants and was given a sort of "heads up" that something might be happening. And I was told yesterday to keep myself available this afternoon should any of the "White Shirts" (what I affectionately refer to anyone that's a Lieutenant or higher) wish to speak with me. Well, no one talked to me today, and I'm not sure when they will. But something is definitely happening.

Extremely long story short is that apparently the command staff is unhappy with the performance of a certain patrol supervisor. They want to move him out of his position. When they do that, they want me to transfer back into the Patrol Division and take over that squad.

I'm not particularly upset about that. I worked patrol for the better part of 10 years before becoming a detective. So it isn't like I don't know how to do it. Plus, being a street supervisor, in my opinion, is actually easier than what I'm doing now. Not to mention that, despite it being shift work, patrol guys actually work fewer days out of the month (12 hour shifts). Oh, and the best part - not being on-call anymore. I work my 12 hour shift and go home. So the concept of less work, less time at work and the same pay is slightly appealing. I would have to give up my unmarked car (which is cool since I'd get one of the brand new marked cars), and my usual uniform of jeans and a shirt. But I look okay in my uniform, so I guess I'll survive.

I'm hoping to know something definite by the end of this week. If it happens, I'm probably going to my new squad sometime next month. Oddly enough, I'm kind of looking forward to the change. Let's hope it all goes smoothly.

Will Work For Toys

I think it should go without saying anymore that my job sometimes has a way of kicking me in the ass. I was on-call last week, which is usually no big deal. But it seemed like my phone would never stop ringing. I was happy that Sunday would be my last day on-call for the week. That was until 6:30 Sunday morning when my phone rang, yet again. Only in the ghetto-riffic place that I work in would there be a shooting at that hour on a Sunday morning. So, barely awake, I drag my ass into work to deal with the transsexual prostitute that got shot in her apartment. Yeah, you read that correctly. I couldn't make that up if I tried. I get all the gems, don't I?

Oh, before I quit talking about work and move on to other subjects, I have to share with you my "Stupid Criminal of the Week" story. One of the uniform guys ran a license plate on an Acura he just saw a guy park behind an apartment building. (The guy was acting a little strange when he saw the officer, so the officer wanted to check the tag on the car). Sure enough, the car is stolen. So he calls me and we decide to wait around to see if the guy comes back to the car. About 15 minutes later, here he comes. We grab him up and put him in handcuffs. Here is a part of our conversation:

Car Thief: "That's not my car! That's not my car!!"

Me: "Right. I know."

CT: "That's not my car!"

Me: "Yeah, I know that. That's why you're in handcuffs."

CT: "But sir, I'm telling you, that's not my car!"

We went back and forth like this for about 5 minutes and he just couldn't understand that his telling me, over and over again, that it wasn't his car simply would not help his cause. What a jackass.

Last week I treated myself to a little something nice. After months of thinking about it, I finally decided I wanted a new car. I enjoyed my old Volkswagen, but I was dying for more room. So I went out to the dealer late last week and picked up my new Jeep Grand Cherokee. I'm totally digging this thing. It's the same color as my old VW, which is cool. And it has a sunroof like the old Jetta did. But it also has twice the engine, 4WD and twice the space. Bonus. I also got my new XM radio the next day. I'm enjoying the hell out of that, too. Hell, the $12, or whatever the hell it costs a month is totally worth it just for the comedy channels. Damn funny stuff. But the music is great and I got this special "bundle" XM was offering where you got the radio, car kit, home kit and speaker box so you can pretty much put your radio in three different places and enjoy it. I'll all about my cool new toys this week.

Kick ass song of the week: "Far Away" - Nickelback. I can't seem to get enough of this tune. Check it out.