So it has been a bit. I just thought you may want a little rest from the guy who has cops and motorcycles on his brain.
Recess is over.
Kristin got her M1 endorsement. She is now officially qualified to ride a motorcycle on city streets. When we added her to the insurance she was shocked because she didn’t imagine that she could make the premium go much higher on a policy that had my name on it. Little did she realize that I have not been in an accident or received a ticket since our honeymoon. (on which I managed to tack on two tickets and one “at-fault” accident).
On the subject of driving records, this is what the Background Investigator for the Sheriff’s Dept. had to say to me:
“I’m not gonna tell you not to come back, because I think that you could have a chance. This is what I am gonna tell ya, from now on you drive like a grandma. There is no longer a 4th or 5th gear on your car or motorcycle. Make good decisions. When you are about to make a choice of actions say to yourself “Will this help me become what I eventually want to be, or will it prevent me from doing what I would like to do with my life instead of what I want right this second?” Also I need you to stay away from people doing things that are against the law. Next time you go to a party and somebody brings out some weed or something like that, and mind you, this doesn’t matter if it’s your best friend's friend from work, your sister, your brother, your cousins, your mom or your dad, just let them know that you cannot be around anything like that. Then leave. Go get a bachelors degree, and come back in three years. This is what you need to do in order to give yourself a chance against your competition.”
Wow. I don’t care what sort of hot seat any of you have ever been on, nothing can ever make you feel more like a criminal than my background investigator. Holy Crap. I started to cry because I was so frustrated ( I was almost halfway out of the parking lot by this time). I don’t know one person who had their whole life worked out and knew what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, then have the discipline to follow through with it when they were 18. Maybe Josh Roberts. I’m pretty sure he had his future planned out before he was done with middle school. I'm not sure though because he couldn't ever come play. Whatever.
On the positive side I got some very clear and honest feed back. I really appreciate what this officer had to tell me. I haven’t decided exactly what to do yet.
I think that the weirdest part about this last week or two has been the number of people who told me they always pictured me as being a guidance counselor or something like that for teenagers, and I should try and pursue that instead of being a cop.
It has been a strange time in the world of pete, I’ll tell you what. Strange time.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Imagine a phonecall from me tonight. This is what it would say:
Kind of funny story. So… Kristin and I changed our phone plan about 4 months ago because we were not getting anywhere near our minute limit. I have been keeping a close tab on how we are doing with our new plan because it has significantly reduced the amount of minutes we get. With the holidays and everything going on this last month I thought we may finally cut it close. When I checked today I was right. We have 7 minutes left. Crap. Our minutes restart on the 17th, but that is like forever away. Why is it like forever away? I’ll tell you. Tomorrow, at 7am, (0700hrs) I am going in for my Orientation with the SDSO. I will be given a preliminary questionnaire and my background packet as well as meet the Detective working my “case.” I will not be able to call anybody when I get done to talk about how excited I am until the sun goes down.
I hope this goes a little better than my preliminary questionnaire with the SDPD. They sent me letter saying “Thanks for you interest, we don’t think you’re what were looking for right now, don’t bother turning in your background packet if you haven’t already and you can try again in a year if you like, but we aren’t sure if we will change our minds.”
Anyway, maybe the story wasn’t funny. Whatever.
P.S. Although the Kingman Police Department (Arizona) is currently accepting applications, they are currently on an indefinite freeze, and therefore not hiring at this moment.
P.P.S. I understand that the SDSO is on a freeze too, but I had already started the application process when the freeze was announced. So, tomorrow will be both a good experience to practice for later next month when I am at the CHP and CBP interviews. Plus even though they aren’t hiring, they are building a queue of candidates that they can hire as soon as the freeze is lifted.
I hope this goes a little better than my preliminary questionnaire with the SDPD. They sent me letter saying “Thanks for you interest, we don’t think you’re what were looking for right now, don’t bother turning in your background packet if you haven’t already and you can try again in a year if you like, but we aren’t sure if we will change our minds.”
Anyway, maybe the story wasn’t funny. Whatever.
P.S. Although the Kingman Police Department (Arizona) is currently accepting applications, they are currently on an indefinite freeze, and therefore not hiring at this moment.
P.P.S. I understand that the SDSO is on a freeze too, but I had already started the application process when the freeze was announced. So, tomorrow will be both a good experience to practice for later next month when I am at the CHP and CBP interviews. Plus even though they aren’t hiring, they are building a queue of candidates that they can hire as soon as the freeze is lifted.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Getting fit for my new uniform, and maybe one day, my new bike.
It is 9:02am. I just finished my breakfast. I started a workout routine yesterday. It consisted of the stretches and floor exercises on pages 4-9 of this link, as well as a 25 minute run on our elliptical machine. It was nice. I am following the workout routine outlined on page 15 of this link (funny side note, I thought I would be closer to the 3 months out routine, but found out that I can barely pump out 12 pushups. Dang. Closer to the 6 month routine. I guess I have a bit of work ahead of me). It was neat this morning though, because one of my big plans was to make these morning workouts whenever possible (as opposed to evening), and try and change my wakeup every day time to 6:30 – 7 am instead of my current 9:30-10 am. Anyway, my wife woke me up at 7:30 this morning and was like “Would you like to go for a walk with me today?” Heck yes I would. I totally forgot to set my alarm, good thing I married a mind reader. So we walked/jogged about 3.5 miles this morning. Awesome. We stopped at the grocery store on the corner of Chase and Avocado (across form my old Starbucks) and got some bananas and cereal for breakfast on the way home. Oh man. What a rad morning this has been.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sometimes I feel like a chatterbox
Today is the last day of Kristin’s riding class. After this she will get a certificate in the mail that she can take to the DMV and trade to them for a brand new driver’s license with “M1” printed next to the “Class: C” part.
Kind of unrelated, but I saw that Utah is changing their license policies to help with the people that buy bikes that are too big for them. Now instead of the M endorsement, they will have a Class D with different restrictions on engine size depending on how big the bike is that you take the riding test with. I was thinking about how when I took the test on the old Black Flys bike, it was so wide because of the engine guard bars that it didn’t fit through some of the cones they put down. I lost 6 points automatically just because of the bike I was riding.
I went to my ear appointment of Friday. The Doctor gave me a couple of tests and said that it may be inoperable. It is obvious that my prosthetics are out of place, but there is a little bit of nerve damage (FYI: nerve damage and brain damage are not the same thing) and so it will never be perfect but it can be better, however a surgery may make it a little worse. I explained that I may need to be a little better in order to become a police officer. He gave me a list of surgeons with a star by one name and said “This guy will be the most likely to operate, so call him first. Good luck.” So I guess I need to call him on Monday to make an appointment.
I applied for the Border Patrol yesterday. I have always had a few reservations about this Agency, especially after spending a semester in the same class as guy that was no longer with the agency. He never had anything good to say about it. In retrospect I wonder if he left in good standing or not, and what was he doing at a community college instead of working for an agency that he wanted to work for? Any way, Kristin’s dad was telling me a bit about the federal government and the CPB (Customs and Border Patrol) officers that he works with everyday, then later that day I bumped into one of my old baristas and he had just finished talking to a recruiter and was going to apply. I got on line and checked it out and found out that it may not be as bad as it had seemed to me. It is actually not that far of a stretch from the CHP except that everybody who I would be citing or arresting won’t speak English and the roads will be mostly dirt instead of freeways. I would also be working for the federal government instead of the state. I can handle that.
Kind of unrelated, but I saw that Utah is changing their license policies to help with the people that buy bikes that are too big for them. Now instead of the M endorsement, they will have a Class D with different restrictions on engine size depending on how big the bike is that you take the riding test with. I was thinking about how when I took the test on the old Black Flys bike, it was so wide because of the engine guard bars that it didn’t fit through some of the cones they put down. I lost 6 points automatically just because of the bike I was riding.
I went to my ear appointment of Friday. The Doctor gave me a couple of tests and said that it may be inoperable. It is obvious that my prosthetics are out of place, but there is a little bit of nerve damage (FYI: nerve damage and brain damage are not the same thing) and so it will never be perfect but it can be better, however a surgery may make it a little worse. I explained that I may need to be a little better in order to become a police officer. He gave me a list of surgeons with a star by one name and said “This guy will be the most likely to operate, so call him first. Good luck.” So I guess I need to call him on Monday to make an appointment.
I applied for the Border Patrol yesterday. I have always had a few reservations about this Agency, especially after spending a semester in the same class as guy that was no longer with the agency. He never had anything good to say about it. In retrospect I wonder if he left in good standing or not, and what was he doing at a community college instead of working for an agency that he wanted to work for? Any way, Kristin’s dad was telling me a bit about the federal government and the CPB (Customs and Border Patrol) officers that he works with everyday, then later that day I bumped into one of my old baristas and he had just finished talking to a recruiter and was going to apply. I got on line and checked it out and found out that it may not be as bad as it had seemed to me. It is actually not that far of a stretch from the CHP except that everybody who I would be citing or arresting won’t speak English and the roads will be mostly dirt instead of freeways. I would also be working for the federal government instead of the state. I can handle that.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Roger Dodger,what's your vector, Victor?
Okay. So I have not been in a hospital or dead for the last couple months. I promise.
I think that around the holidays I have tendency to get a little depressed. I don’t really check my email or take any phone calls. I get pretty flaky too. I don’t really understand it, especially since I am a pretty happy guy.
So here is what has happened and is happening.
I finished my fall semester and still have a 4.0 at Grossmont. Only 11 more credit hours to go until I get my Forensic Technology Certification. That will mean that I have completed all of the major requirement for an AS, but not the general requirements. That is okay. Since making the decision to become a sworn officer, I have decided to major in something a little less math-y than chemistry like English.
I have been asked by the SDPD to apply again in a year.
I have an orientation to attend next week for the SDSO (San Diego Sheriff's Office); at this I will receive some important information as well as a background packet. This is like step 4 out of 8 for their application process.
I have applied for the CHP, and will attend my POST written exam on February 7th. The application process for the guys is typically between 6 months and 1 year.
I was elected President of GXX. This is the Grossmont college branch of the ACJA (LAE in Greek) since I was just filling in for president the last semester, and was actually only the Vice president. This ought to be a pretty good semester for us. Lots of cool things on the agenda such as tour the SDSO crime lab, have a “how to get hired in law enforcement” mini class and professional interview panel, as well as the regular monthly meetings. We will hear form speakers who specialize in prison gangs, sexual assault investigations, Internal Affairs investigations, hopefully Kristin’s dad will come up from El Paso and give us a little presentation on his work with the joint Forest Service /DEA taskforce.
I have scheduled an appointment to hopefully get my ear fixed.
I think that is pretty much all of the big stuff.
So... by this time next year I could be: a dad, a sheriff, a Police officer, a Highway Patrolman, a Certified Forensic Technician, an Assistant manager at Starbucks.
I think now that I broke through the block, I may be a little more apt to stay current, especially because this is going to be an exciting couple of months.
-p
I think that around the holidays I have tendency to get a little depressed. I don’t really check my email or take any phone calls. I get pretty flaky too. I don’t really understand it, especially since I am a pretty happy guy.
So here is what has happened and is happening.
I finished my fall semester and still have a 4.0 at Grossmont. Only 11 more credit hours to go until I get my Forensic Technology Certification. That will mean that I have completed all of the major requirement for an AS, but not the general requirements. That is okay. Since making the decision to become a sworn officer, I have decided to major in something a little less math-y than chemistry like English.
I have been asked by the SDPD to apply again in a year.
I have an orientation to attend next week for the SDSO (San Diego Sheriff's Office); at this I will receive some important information as well as a background packet. This is like step 4 out of 8 for their application process.
I have applied for the CHP, and will attend my POST written exam on February 7th. The application process for the guys is typically between 6 months and 1 year.
I was elected President of GXX. This is the Grossmont college branch of the ACJA (LAE in Greek) since I was just filling in for president the last semester, and was actually only the Vice president. This ought to be a pretty good semester for us. Lots of cool things on the agenda such as tour the SDSO crime lab, have a “how to get hired in law enforcement” mini class and professional interview panel, as well as the regular monthly meetings. We will hear form speakers who specialize in prison gangs, sexual assault investigations, Internal Affairs investigations, hopefully Kristin’s dad will come up from El Paso and give us a little presentation on his work with the joint Forest Service /DEA taskforce.
I have scheduled an appointment to hopefully get my ear fixed.
I think that is pretty much all of the big stuff.
So... by this time next year I could be: a dad, a sheriff, a Police officer, a Highway Patrolman, a Certified Forensic Technician, an Assistant manager at Starbucks.
I think now that I broke through the block, I may be a little more apt to stay current, especially because this is going to be an exciting couple of months.
-p
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