I cannot say enough about my wife of nearly 39 years- July 11th. She homeschooled the kids, was a cops wife and all that entailed, a volunteer EMT and Master Gardner (some of you will know what that means), a strong Christian, busy youth leader for 50 high schoolers....list is long. Now she's approaching senior citizen and not gripping too much about it, I get to do all the complaining in that area. She risked her life in one community being my wife, where cops were not too popular and carried her own .357 revolver and knew how to use it. She impressed me on our first date, shooting the branch off a tree at 100 feet. I decided not to compete against her after that, but someone had taught her how to shoot when she was growing up. She was the one who taught me how to use a chain saw and build fires in a wood stove, having been a logger's daughter and the youngest of 9 kids. I love the woman, what more can I say.
Easter has come and gone and it seems the year is going by rapidly. Our eldest son, John Leroy turns 43 years old this Thursday- April 25th. He was born on my father's birthday and my old man told everyone we had planned it that way. John now works two jobs, full-time with the U.S. Marshal's Service and part time for the Whittier Police Department here in Alaska. Strange to think how 43 years have gone by since I first held him as a baby and he now stand 6'4". His younger brother Micheal surpassed us all by reaching 6'8", an inch over me.
SO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN LEROY!!!!! We love you!
The weekend, though beautiful and white, was a quiet one. Except for the hustle and bustle of my great grandchildren. It amazes me how smart these kids are for being so young. Solomon is 4 and Segen is approaching 2. A hundred times a day it seems she is up the stairs to come spend time with Mona and I and her vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds. To be truthful, they get their intelligence from Mona's side and growing up I was always being told I was as "dumb as a rock". I don't think my mind engaged until the military dragged it out of me so I would survive Vietnam and being a military cop. So, Mona's family line gets all the credit as far as I am concerned. Who ever thought I'd live long enough to have great grandchildren....I sure didn't. Of course that OUJAI (spelling?) Board I played with in my teens said I'd live to 27 and die, leaving 3 kids behind. Stupid game.
In the book I am working on now, based on my time with the Seward Police Department, I am devoting the current chapter to several gun calls I responded to during my first summer in the seaside community and a major tourist stop. Now though nearly everyone in Alaska owns firearms and police often respond to problems where firearms are a threat, but actual shootings back in the mid-80's were few. I worked with a State Trooper one late night where a intoxicated male started shooting up his apartment complex located outside the city limits, another one where a man was shooting up his neighborhood, but in both cases no one was actually hit by a stray bullet. Lucky. But in one such shooting, which happened to occur right downtown Seward, an upset man in a bar followed another man outside and shot him in the stomach, wounding him. It took me a few minutes to reach the scene and then save the shooter from an enraged crowd of onlookers, who only risked coming outside because their blood was a wee bit deluded with stimulants. The victim survived and the shooter went to prison, but it would not be the last such situation for that summer.
I look back over my career and realize how blessed I was, how my angels were working on overtime and protected me from harm. I took a lot of firearms away from drunks. In one situation I had to jump across some 20 fishing boats to reach the shooter and another time I had to journey 30 miles across the ocean to a small island to take down another shooter, supported by one of my patrolmen. Such came with the job. I learned after one episode of a barracked subject ( in Seward), the man had me in his sights for nearly 15 minutes because we were directed to the wrong house. Yes, my angels were working double time that night, as that man was a bit insane. He got a big kick out of weighing my life against the time he might have to spend in prison. I drank some extra coffee that night when it was all over. Adrenaline is a weird thing, it can hit with a jolt and then bring on the shakes afterward. Don't get me wrong I've never thought of myself as being heroic, I'm not that vane. People that really want to be police officers have a certain outlook on life and a desire to Protect and Serve. Same sort of drive firefighters, doctors and nurses and emergency volunteers have. You worry about the danger afterward. My children do that now. Three of my sons have gone into harms way in the Middle East and two of them have followed me into law enforcement. I suppose that the same for most families where the father or mother was a in law enforcement, at least one of the children will follow in their shoes. Not sure where I;m going with this but I will stop now, please remember I was up at 4 a.m. this morning and I'm a senior citizen....the list of excuses is long and boring.
News Releases: "Germany Charges Former Nazi Prison Guard With 5,230 Counts of Accessory to Murder From Holocaust"....Texas State University Bans Conservative Group From It's Campus"....Qatar (pronounced 'cutter') Accused of Violating Agreements in Bid to Undercut U.S. Air Carriers".... "North Carolina Democrat Governor Vetoes Newborn Protections"...."Crucial Summit Between Afghan Leaders and Taliban is Cancelled"....New Mexico Militia Detains 200 Asylum Seekers at Gunpoint- Feds Arrest Militia Leader".... "MS-13 Gang Members Previously Arrested and Departed, Re-Arrested Trying to Enter the U.S.".... "New Mexico County Declares State of Emergency Over Influx if Migrants".... "Hurricane Michael Upgraded to a Category 5" .... "Storms Blast South, Where Tornadoes Threaten Several States".... Study Shows 32% of Foods Labeled 'Gluten Free', Contain Gluten"...."France Fire Destroys 2 Millions Bottles of Wine Worth $13 Million"....."Woman Goes to Jail For running Over Son in School Parking Lot"...."$th Grader Forced to Wash Off 'Ash Wednesday' Cross at School"....."Notre Dame to Be Rebuilt, But Most European Jewish Sites Never Will Be"....."Cambodia Reports First Outbreak of Bird Flu"....."China Builds World's First Armed Amphibious Drone Boat That Can Lead Land Assault"...."Hundreds of Thousands Protest on Algeria's Streets, Demanding Racial Reform"....."104 People Killed in Congo Boat Accident"...."14 People Die in Zambia Traffic Accident".... "WHO Reports 174 People Killed in Tripoli Clashes"...."Turkey Seeks to Improve Trade Ties With Iran, Slam U.S. Sanctions".... "Frances 'Yellow Vest' Protesters Banned From Notre Dame"...."Venezuela Denounces US Sanctions as "Crimes Against Humanity' "...."India's Supreme Court to Consider Petition That Would Allow Women to Enter Mosques"..... "Vermont Advances Bill to Turn 'Columbus Day' Into 'Indigenous Day' "..... "Fisherman Reels in 102-lb Catfish"....."13 Killed at Family Party in Mexico".... "More Than 800 Churches Attacked in France in 2018"...."Bombs Kill 290 People and Wound 500 Others in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, in Churches and Hotels"..... "Trump Tightens U.S. Sanctions on Iranian Oil Purchases"...."Woman with Gun and Baby in Arms Threatens Church With Gun during Easter Services, Is Taken Down By Church Members"...."6.3 Earthquake Shakes the Philippines"...."Police Arrest 24 People for Sri Lanka Bombings"...."Queen Elizabeth II Turns 93 Years Old"....
I found it interesting regarding the Notre Dame fire that the government declared the fire accidental even before the investigation could be in full swing. With 800 churches attacked in France in 2018, why was the government in such a big hurry. True, the dominate faith in France is now reported to be Muslim, but what did the government have to fear since they have reported on the other 800 churches. Might be they fear that someone would try to finish the job????
Already in Europe some of the ancient Christian temples are being transformed into mosques as the "Sword of Islam" sweeps across the land. I sometimes wonder if Islam could be the one world religion spoken of in the Book of Revelation? Only time will tell, but far too many countries that were dominantly pro-Christian are now pro-Muslim. How can a faith that preaches love and peace, but be so violent, that transform women into 2nd class citizens be growing so rapidly? Questions, so many questions.
Well, that's all for now, folks. The world keeps turning, so life goes on. God Bless, BILL