Our updates for all of you

I came across this the other day in a box of some of my 'old tech'.  How many people reading this post used something like this?  "Back in the day", the 1990s I'm talking about here.  It doesn't seem like a long time ago just thinking about it, but it sure was! 20 years ago now!  This was an era that can't be hardly remembered on calling people because everybody has cell phones, but still, this was quite a while before everybody started to use cellphones.  Pay phones were the rule back then and pay phone gadgets like this one became available to help you 'speed dial' your way to a phone call.  For me, I found and bought, I think it was around $15.00 for this device, because quite often when I was out at night and 'on-call' I'd get a page (with the on call "beeping" pager) and had to go find a pay phone and call in to get the new call, it was a lot of phone numbers! This was several years before everyone ...

Some photos from the last few weeks starting with Christmas Eve with the presents all set for the next morning.  Below our holiday dinner  Below, my best present from Stacy and a gift and for both of us,  a water dispenser just like Sean has at his place in Hawaii.  Hot, room temperature, and cold water from a 3 to 5 gallon container inside the body.  We love it!  Below,  every year the Courthouse has a employees breakfast for the holidays.  This year's was another good one!  The photo below is part of our driveway showing the small amount of snow we've had so far. It has been cold and there was a good sized snowfall in October that had many long time locals saying it is going to be a bad winter!  Well, so far it has turned out to be not so much.  We had a week of near and below zero temps,  but almost no snow yet. And it was the first Christmas that it didn't snow at all in the last few years.  We'll see tho...

In our Christmas letter this year Stacy had made a point to mention this Blog page, so I have to get on it and get back to posting! So, with Stacy throwing down the Gauntlet that this Blog exists I'd better get some current stuff posted! With today being the 19th of December, we are happy that all of our gifts to send are on their way or have arrived. DONE! We did cards differently this year and used the Android/Apple application called Sincerely Ink to create and send out cards. I took some photos last Saturday and we picked the one we liked, then Stacy wrote the great poem and assembled on the iPad then it's just add recipients, billing info, and send! They do the rest including telling you when the cards are sent out and then again notification on the day they'll arrive at their destinations. A really great app, yes these are more post card style then card in envelope style, but completely customizable and for about $2.00 a card, including the postage, we think it is ...

On Tuesday it was what was going on in our life 10 years ago, today it's what happened to me 39 years ago the very date and day of the week of Wednesday, October 30th, 1974, in that I probably came as close as ever to dying because of a motorcycle against a car accident. I was in High School way back then, a fairly new car driver and motorcycle rider and I was on my way home in Yucaipa, California, from the school on my few months old, new to me, 1970 Honda CB175. Back in those days Yucaipa was not much more than a retirement community with a relatively small population and almost no stoplights throughout the town or in the entire area in general. Mostly then it was lots of stop signs with that old 'right of way' problem of who goes first? An exception to the above was "Yucaipa Boulevard", back then the only two lane road at that part had no stops on the blvd, just side streets, from the off ramp of I-10 all the way up to the plateau of the bulk of the commun...

I was searching online to see what was still available to be seen from what was posted about the events of 10 years ago today! I know that for it's time this event was of an incredible magnitude, the first time the entire population of the San Bernardino mountains was ordered evacuated, but even this fire event has since been eclipsed buy more recent, and increasingly worse, events due to the continuing drought conditions in Southern California.  Back in 2003 I was a shift Supervisor Lieutenant in San Bernardino County Animal Control. And Stacy was working in the Field as an Animal Control Officer. Our daughter Laura, again in the Animal Control field now in Texas, was at that time working at the County run Animal Shelter in the City of Rancho Cucamonga. This fire event stretched our department beyond it's ability to respond to the public concerns. Many, many, residents were caught off guard by the sudden closure due to the very fast spreading of the fire because...

So I just reread what I had written in the last post and other then a few things I pretty well covered Thetbroth was very good he trip to Hawaii with that post. I was going to post some photos here but I created an online album of the photos I'd taken with my Galaxy Note II as with my phone all photos and videos get automatically uploaded, and backed up! But already being online makes arranging an album so much easier. I think I had sent a link to just about everyone but if I missed you just send me a note and I'll get you hooked up!  So, back to the story.  One of the evenings on Oahu we decided to try the public transit to travel to Waikiki as Sean doesn't like to go there very often because traffic is a BIG problem, parking the WORST! Stacy and I, on many trips, have tried out the area transit to get around, some have been great, some not so much.  Taking the bus from Sean's place wasn't too bad, a lot of local residents utilize the system which is good...

Stacy and I, after getting back from the conference trip in Boise in August, still had a lot to do and not much time!  We had been planning a trip, a kind of family reunion for our little family, and used the combination of events like my birthday, new grand baby Justine's 1 year birthday, our wedding anniversary, our son Sean's wedding anniversary, and an early birthday present for him by all of us, Sandy and family, Laura and family and me and Stacy all getting together in Hawaii where Sean lives and loves living!  At least that was the original plan.  Then, as things like this must be, arrangements had to start early and when started early things change! We wanted to make the trip more towards October at first and closer to Sean's birthday as it was going to be his 30th, but Sean, who is going to night school as well as working full time, decided he wanted to have the trip during his break from school and just take two weeks off from work too. So it was moved up to mid...

This past week was our annual trek for the juvenile justice conference. This year it was in Boise again as it was three years ago. Boise was hot and humid all week with a lot of smoke from several fires in the general area. This was Stacy's year as the President of the organization so she was at the helm and had to give several speeches and introductions to a room with over 250 people in it! Can you say STRESSED! But even with the stress the overall comments were all very positive to all that Stacy had organized for the week. I was able to get a lot of good photos of the activities and classes. I also used my iPad and a time lapse application and made several videos of activities during the event. A good show that we are glad it's over for the year! Next year is Stacy's last year as a board member and she'll be a past president. So 2015's convention is at this point very iffy for us to be attending. I personally have some other things I'd like us to be doi...

Hornets, Yellow jackets, and Wasps, a very, very bad year this year for them around here!  And not just in our area but most of North Idaho from what we've found out. In fact when Stacy stopped at Wal Mart to buy some new bait for our traps, Wal Mart was sold out and across the street at Home Depot, she was lucky to get there when a new shipment of traps and bait was being opened. She was told by the clerk that their shipments have been selling out in less than a day and as quick as a half hour as so many people are having problems with the bugs! And hospital and doctor visits have increased dramatically too due to stings according to the news. It has been both hotter and dryer than normal locally this summer so mosquitoes were way down, a very good thing!  But now in late August when the "skitos" would be low anyway, the Hornets, Yellow Jackets and Wasps, and yes we have all three types on our place!, have been going crazy quietly building nests all over the...

Rocky in the sense of I'm still having balance issues. I didn't read my last post but looking at the date I had not had the MRI yet.  So, over a month in with 2 Doctors, a Chiropractor, and my Optometrist, an MRI, exams, blood work and almost having my ear ripped off during the "adjustment", and luckily, nothing really bad was discovered as a cause- so far. No evidence of a stroke, blood clot, or tumor, so that's so far all good.  The bad? No one can tell me with any kind of even guess how long before my balance will be totally back to normal, or even if it ever will be!  The Doctor consensus is that as magically as it appeared, it should stop. But no idea when. I talked to people and read about people that had to deal with this condition for any length of time from a few days to years! That had me very depressed two weeks ago, was this my new "normal"?  That said, Stacy feels, and I agree, that maybe it's time for a specialist? Because it has been ...

I know, I know, these 'updates' are getting few and far between. Such a far cry of what I'd wanted when I started this Blog. But such is life isn't it? I'll start with now and go backwards this time. At the moment Stacy is down barbecuing in Boise as it's her week to teach her class at the state POST (Police Officers Standards and Training) Academy. She should be back by Saturday and while it's a week of 90's heat here it is hotter there with 100's.  I am off work due to a truly debilitating condition I have suddenly developed. It all started with a 24 hour bug I had on the 13th and 14th. Something in that little bug has messed up my inner ear and now I have the condition "BPPV" which means, Benign Positional Paroxysmal Vertigo.  What's it mean? It means that at it's worst and for over a day, the world was spinning so bad that if I even sat up, if I did anything but just lay there, I would become sick and throw up. Even now, over a ...

1. Never promise anything! It's almost guaranteed to cause disaster and/or death to the person that's being promised to! Adult or kid! 2. It must be okay to do so because EVERYBODY in TV shows drinks and drives or does something deadly right after downing a good stiff drink! Police, Doctors, Lawyers, all get together at the local dive after work to toss back a few drinks to "unwind", then drive home where ever that may be, but usually has 'no sympathy' for anyone doing the same thing they meet up with 'on the job'. It also is perfectly OK to keep that bottle of alcohol in your desk drawer, if you are the boss, it's even expected! 3. No matter where you are, day or night, it's easier to use a really bright flashlight than to just turn on a light switch! All rooms where a crime has been committed are foggy with smoke so you can more easily see the light beam from that flashlight you've got. 4. No matter what you're doing must NEVER...

Work, work, work! Seems like people have been working overtime to get into trouble and keep us busy at work! Add to that, that the newest person in our little department is off on total bed rest, 3 months before the due date of her twins, putting her workload on primarily Stacy, and it has been a very busy last few months. And Stacy still has to keep up with her travels to Boise for state level meetings, travels to Coeur d' Alene, meetings, meetings! So she's really been feeling the pressure. But even with over 20 new cases in the last two months alone, today is a rainy kind of kick back day. Stacy is busy working on her latest sewing project and earlier we watched a double feature of rented movies, "Hitchcock" and "Parental Guidance". Hitchcock turned out to be better than I had thought it might be, we actually liked it, and Parental Guidance just as bad as I thought it might be. Of all the recent movies on our watch list, "Lincoln" is the onl...

My last post was way back in December. So this is kind of an end of last year recap and new year post. Winter In our area it started off like it would quite a "Doozie" of a Winter. Normally the real snow doesn't fall until right around or after Christmas, not this year! We got substantial snowfall well before the Holiday. Many locals were comparing the amount to the "Winter of 1996" which was the last of the 'snow drifts and blizzards' Winters that many remember that lived here at the time. In our area the major Winter Resort is a place called Schweitzer Mountain about 35 miles South, with primarily skiing, snowboarding and such Winter activities. Measurements taken in mid December had the snow pack of 168 inches (14 feet!) which was said to be 120% of 'normal' for that time of the year. Well, it stayed like that, wintry and snowy, until about second week of January then it didn't snow for weeks. Then any snow was light accumulations ...