Woke up with the sun for another glorious April morning here in Moose Pass, with a bit of a haze and a few clouds off to the north, over Anchorage and Whittier. Hope to get a bit of raking done today, now that the snow has vanished and last fall's leaves have been left. We usually pile them up and use them for compost, the hard part is keeping our ankle biter brigade of small dogs out of the compost. They go in search of our kitchen scraps we add to the pile and I will probably have to put up some sort of fence this summer.
Our neighbors put up a tall fence for their large beast of a dog, a good 180 pound behemoth that my little dogs think is quite the hunk. The owner has recently applied a low dosage electric fence to keep the hound from jumping over the fence and taking a bite out of some stranger. The dog reminds me so much of Radar, our 140 lb Newfoundland we had for 13-years before cancer took him. Loyal as all get out, Radar actively protected our children when they were outside playing. While we were living in Seward and I was a police officer, someone tried to get back at me by poisoning Radar. We had to rush him to Anchorage for a transfusion and this saved him, but for a week or so, either Troy or I had to pick him up and carry him outside so he could relieve himself, it took a bit for him to regain his strength. Never did find out who had done this to him and maybe that's a good thing as I was pretty upset.
I've decided my next manuscript will be the next installment in my "Badge and the Cross" series and this one will involve my time on the Seward Police Department. Fictional characters with most of my actual police cases. Back then the bars stayed open until 5 a.m., public drinking was allowed, as well as fireworks and the Hell's Angels visited the town for the 4th of July celebrations. Seward is the home for the famous Mt. Marathon Race held on the 4th of July, a major tourist stop and southern hub for the Alaska Railroad. We had about 3500 residents and an 8-member police department. I worked the midnight to 8 a.m. shift, often by myself, but we had dispatchers, unlike my time in Skagway where we didn't use dispatchers and hoped someone was listening to the police scanner when we called for help. Seward is also a fishing community that received heavy damage during the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. Tsunami waves did quite a bit of damage and 13 people were killed. They still take their tsunami warnings seriously, with sirens and signs posted directing people on where to go for a tsunami emergency.
I worked a lot of good cases in Seward, from Grand Theft Auto to burglaries and dope busts. I eventually became the Investigator for the department and one of my largest cases involved 47 fishing boats being burglarized by a single offender who just happened to live on a boat. This made it more difficult to identify him and then he needed protection pending trial as the fishermen wanted to hang him for all the expensive gear they lost- weapons, radios, sonar...etc. Turned out most of the stuff he took he just threw over the sides of the boat and it sunk into the harbor sludge, other items he took to Anchorage for pawning. He was a doper. The boat he was living on, but wasn't the owner, was mysteriously sunk after he was arrested...fishermen appear to have zero tolerance for criminals. Working the late shift I dealt with a lot of drunk drivers, having arrested 86 of them in 1985. I had my own code of conduct, for I realized how harsh a DWI arrest could effect someone's life.
If they had a good attitude and had a passenger who was sober to take over the driving, I often let them off with a stiff warning. But, I wasn't out there to be anyone's boxing dummy, nor did I tolerate verbal abuse from a drunk, so those went to jail if they failed their field sobriety test. At the jail they were given an Intoximeter Test to see how drunk they were and the results were allowed in court. We had a lot of problems with pot ( not legal yet), cocaine and magic mushrooms back then, and this kept my nights pretty busy. Domestic disturbances were also a big problem in Seward. I had this one couple who fought weekly and either one or the other would throw the other's clothes outside into the road. This really made a mess and their apartment was right across the street from the post office.
Another couple liked to throw projectiles at one another, from bottles to knives. Juvenile burglaries were also a big problem and I was also able to solve quite a few of those. As the investigator I gained a 82% closure rate and my lieutenant was always asking how I was able to do so well. I always told him the same thing, of how I prayed over each case and the Lord provided me with the means to close the case. He would then ask me why I couldn't close a 100% of the cases if I was praying all the time and I replied, "I'm apparently not always hearing His answers. I mean, I'd be driving down the road with Mona in our car with me, during the middle of the day and suddenly a thought picture would form that had nothing to do what we were talking about and it would show me the answer to one of my cases. An example of this was when the town's laundromat was burglarized and a 300 pound safe was stolen. I arrested 4 older juveniles for the case once my thought picture showed me where they had hidden the safe- off a cliff on the other side of the bay. Now how cool is that.
Working as the investigator there helped me later get my job as an Investigator for the State of Alaska's gambling unit. For a time I was the lone Investigator, but eventually two more were added on and I only had to handle the north country. Handling the whole state meant a lot of flights on small airplanes. But, I got to see a lot of Alaska that way.
So, today I am working on developing my main characters for the story. They of course need their individual identifies, backgrounds and such. time takes place between Sept 1984 thru July 1988. My character's name will be Paul Kincaid, 28 yrs old, former member of the Nome Police Department, Air Force veteran, married, with two children, a Vietnam Vet and from Pomona, California. I've given him my height at 6'7" and 260 lbs, which I was back then. I haven't picked out the name for the wife yet, but the name Paul is to honor my oldest brother, now deceased.
Here's some headlines for you: "HAMAS and Islamic Jihad Have Ordered Their Members to End the Use of Explosive Devices on Border Fence in Gaza"... Israel's First Lady Rushed to Hospital and Israel's Prime Minister Cuts His Visit Short to Canada to Rush Home to be With His Wife"... "Democrats Refuse to Give Up on Impeachment Plans for Trump"...."Hollywood Celebrities Threaten Boycott of the State of Georgia After State Passed Pro-Life 'Heartbeat' Bill, Limiting Abortions"...."San Diego Lawmakers Sue Trump Administration As County Cares for 11,000 Asylum Seekers"... "House Again Votes to End U.S. Military Aid for Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen, But Trump is Likely to Veto it"...."Belgium Apologizes For Kidnapping Children From African Countries"....Israel's Robotic Lunar Lander Moves Into Moon Orbit"... "Trump sets Goal to Put Americans Back on The Moon by 2024"...."Graves Sites of Former President Ford and First Lady Betty Ford Vandalized in Michigan"... NASA Sending Robotic Bees to Space"...."U.S. Navy Plans to Build 32 New Attack Submarines by 2034".... "Four Democratic Senators Who Voted Against Protecting Newborns Now Sponsor Bill Designed to Protect Kittens From USDA Testing".... "Pro-Palestinian Activists Post Eviction Notices on Jewish Student's Dorm Room Doors"...." Leftist Students Fully Embrace Racial Segregation"...."Mexico's President Refuses to Slow Illegal Immigration of U.S."...."Russian Group Offered Paramilitary Training to U.S. Neo-Nazis"...."ICE Busts Nearly 300 in Largest Raid in a Decade"...."U.S. Job Market Rebounds With Gain of 196,000 Jobs in March"... "More Than 30,000 People To Be Removed From Medicaid Roles After Eligibility Check".... "Washington Thinking About New Border Force in Syria",,,, "Twenty States Move To Block Trump's Border Wall Funding". That's it.
I find it interesting that some democrat senators feel kittens are more important than human babies. Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a cuddly kitten, but really, let's get real here. And why are we giving Saudi Arabia aid money? They're one of the richest countries in that part of the world- they have all that oil.
News can be extremely strange at times and which newspaper is carrying what story, and how much of it is truly fake news? Can we trust our news services anymore? I do have a few news sources I do trust, while others I look at to see what they're reporting on and how far fetched they've become- in my opinion. Now the job market gain is just fine, but does it take into account how many jobs were lost that month due to downsizing, bankruptcy, and modernization. How many jobs have gone over to third world nations. I remember when Fender Guitars took their factories to Mexico for cheaper labor costs and no unions to deal with.
I've decided my next manuscript will be the next installment in my "Badge and the Cross" series and this one will involve my time on the Seward Police Department. Fictional characters with most of my actual police cases. Back then the bars stayed open until 5 a.m., public drinking was allowed, as well as fireworks and the Hell's Angels visited the town for the 4th of July celebrations. Seward is the home for the famous Mt. Marathon Race held on the 4th of July, a major tourist stop and southern hub for the Alaska Railroad. We had about 3500 residents and an 8-member police department. I worked the midnight to 8 a.m. shift, often by myself, but we had dispatchers, unlike my time in Skagway where we didn't use dispatchers and hoped someone was listening to the police scanner when we called for help. Seward is also a fishing community that received heavy damage during the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake. Tsunami waves did quite a bit of damage and 13 people were killed. They still take their tsunami warnings seriously, with sirens and signs posted directing people on where to go for a tsunami emergency.
I worked a lot of good cases in Seward, from Grand Theft Auto to burglaries and dope busts. I eventually became the Investigator for the department and one of my largest cases involved 47 fishing boats being burglarized by a single offender who just happened to live on a boat. This made it more difficult to identify him and then he needed protection pending trial as the fishermen wanted to hang him for all the expensive gear they lost- weapons, radios, sonar...etc. Turned out most of the stuff he took he just threw over the sides of the boat and it sunk into the harbor sludge, other items he took to Anchorage for pawning. He was a doper. The boat he was living on, but wasn't the owner, was mysteriously sunk after he was arrested...fishermen appear to have zero tolerance for criminals. Working the late shift I dealt with a lot of drunk drivers, having arrested 86 of them in 1985. I had my own code of conduct, for I realized how harsh a DWI arrest could effect someone's life.
If they had a good attitude and had a passenger who was sober to take over the driving, I often let them off with a stiff warning. But, I wasn't out there to be anyone's boxing dummy, nor did I tolerate verbal abuse from a drunk, so those went to jail if they failed their field sobriety test. At the jail they were given an Intoximeter Test to see how drunk they were and the results were allowed in court. We had a lot of problems with pot ( not legal yet), cocaine and magic mushrooms back then, and this kept my nights pretty busy. Domestic disturbances were also a big problem in Seward. I had this one couple who fought weekly and either one or the other would throw the other's clothes outside into the road. This really made a mess and their apartment was right across the street from the post office.
Another couple liked to throw projectiles at one another, from bottles to knives. Juvenile burglaries were also a big problem and I was also able to solve quite a few of those. As the investigator I gained a 82% closure rate and my lieutenant was always asking how I was able to do so well. I always told him the same thing, of how I prayed over each case and the Lord provided me with the means to close the case. He would then ask me why I couldn't close a 100% of the cases if I was praying all the time and I replied, "I'm apparently not always hearing His answers. I mean, I'd be driving down the road with Mona in our car with me, during the middle of the day and suddenly a thought picture would form that had nothing to do what we were talking about and it would show me the answer to one of my cases. An example of this was when the town's laundromat was burglarized and a 300 pound safe was stolen. I arrested 4 older juveniles for the case once my thought picture showed me where they had hidden the safe- off a cliff on the other side of the bay. Now how cool is that.
Working as the investigator there helped me later get my job as an Investigator for the State of Alaska's gambling unit. For a time I was the lone Investigator, but eventually two more were added on and I only had to handle the north country. Handling the whole state meant a lot of flights on small airplanes. But, I got to see a lot of Alaska that way.
So, today I am working on developing my main characters for the story. They of course need their individual identifies, backgrounds and such. time takes place between Sept 1984 thru July 1988. My character's name will be Paul Kincaid, 28 yrs old, former member of the Nome Police Department, Air Force veteran, married, with two children, a Vietnam Vet and from Pomona, California. I've given him my height at 6'7" and 260 lbs, which I was back then. I haven't picked out the name for the wife yet, but the name Paul is to honor my oldest brother, now deceased.
- Just thought you might be interested.
Here's some headlines for you: "HAMAS and Islamic Jihad Have Ordered Their Members to End the Use of Explosive Devices on Border Fence in Gaza"... Israel's First Lady Rushed to Hospital and Israel's Prime Minister Cuts His Visit Short to Canada to Rush Home to be With His Wife"... "Democrats Refuse to Give Up on Impeachment Plans for Trump"...."Hollywood Celebrities Threaten Boycott of the State of Georgia After State Passed Pro-Life 'Heartbeat' Bill, Limiting Abortions"...."San Diego Lawmakers Sue Trump Administration As County Cares for 11,000 Asylum Seekers"... "House Again Votes to End U.S. Military Aid for Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen, But Trump is Likely to Veto it"...."Belgium Apologizes For Kidnapping Children From African Countries"....Israel's Robotic Lunar Lander Moves Into Moon Orbit"... "Trump sets Goal to Put Americans Back on The Moon by 2024"...."Graves Sites of Former President Ford and First Lady Betty Ford Vandalized in Michigan"... NASA Sending Robotic Bees to Space"...."U.S. Navy Plans to Build 32 New Attack Submarines by 2034".... "Four Democratic Senators Who Voted Against Protecting Newborns Now Sponsor Bill Designed to Protect Kittens From USDA Testing".... "Pro-Palestinian Activists Post Eviction Notices on Jewish Student's Dorm Room Doors"...." Leftist Students Fully Embrace Racial Segregation"...."Mexico's President Refuses to Slow Illegal Immigration of U.S."...."Russian Group Offered Paramilitary Training to U.S. Neo-Nazis"...."ICE Busts Nearly 300 in Largest Raid in a Decade"...."U.S. Job Market Rebounds With Gain of 196,000 Jobs in March"... "More Than 30,000 People To Be Removed From Medicaid Roles After Eligibility Check".... "Washington Thinking About New Border Force in Syria",,,, "Twenty States Move To Block Trump's Border Wall Funding". That's it.
I find it interesting that some democrat senators feel kittens are more important than human babies. Now don't get me wrong, I can appreciate a cuddly kitten, but really, let's get real here. And why are we giving Saudi Arabia aid money? They're one of the richest countries in that part of the world- they have all that oil.
News can be extremely strange at times and which newspaper is carrying what story, and how much of it is truly fake news? Can we trust our news services anymore? I do have a few news sources I do trust, while others I look at to see what they're reporting on and how far fetched they've become- in my opinion. Now the job market gain is just fine, but does it take into account how many jobs were lost that month due to downsizing, bankruptcy, and modernization. How many jobs have gone over to third world nations. I remember when Fender Guitars took their factories to Mexico for cheaper labor costs and no unions to deal with.
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