3 Strikes ... You're OUT

Just a few experiences from the past

ZONE Six is 10-8 (Police talk for I am on duty)

In just a matter of eight years as a police officer, I had so many various encounters with people, both good and bad, that I thought I would tell a few of the stories.

West Palm Beach Police Department:
A beautiful summer day in south Florida, clear blue skies, summer breeze coming off of the Intracoastal waterway, light traffic and I had just finished my first cup of coffee for the day.

While traveling north on Dixie Highway I fell in behind a vehicle traveling about 55 mph. The speed limit in this area was 35 mph. I followed the green station wagon about eight city blocks and realized it wasn’t going to slow down.

Pulling up behind the vehicle, I turned on my emergency lights and flashed my headlights in an attempt to have the little old lady driving pull over to the curb. This went on for another five blocks without any indication she was aware I was there. Hence… the siren was used. Still no response or acknowledgement that I was there, after another 10 city blocks of lights and siren she managed to notice my presents. She pulled to the right shoulder of the highway and stopped.

I approached the vehicle cautiously and noticed a frail white haired grandmother type woman clutching the steering wheel with both hands, her knuckles were white and she was shacking. After identifying myself as a police officer, calming her down and advising her that she had been speeding, she immediately started yelling that her little green station wagon would not go 55mph and that she could not have been speeding.

Upon retrieving her drivers license I returned to my police cruiser and started to right a speeding ticket. Before I could even get the ticket book opened, I looked up and there she was driving away like nothing had happened. I immediately pursued her for another 8 blocks, with lights and siren, and she finally pulled over.

When I approached and asked her why she had driven away, she said, “I really do not have time to sit around waiting on you. I have shopping to do for this evening's dinner”.
I advised her that she would have to stay there and it would only take about five minutes to issue the citation and she would be free to go on her way. I returned to my vehicle and started to right the citation.

Yep… you guessed it! Looked up from my ticket book and there she was tooling down the highway. So, again I pursued her, but this time I pulled my police cruiser in front of her vehicle (which was definitely against regulations) and stopped her for the third time. I approached her car, reached in and took her keys from the ignition so that she would not be able to drive off this time. She was mortified that I would take her keys and she let me know it in no uncertain terms of endearing adjectives. I was amazed that she knew that many colorful words. Maybe she had been in the Marines or a biker chick at one time.

If that wasn’t enough, she decided that she did not want to sign the traffic citation. When I advised her that dinner would be very late and her husband would be a little disappointed about paying a bondsman to get her out of the city lock-up she finally agreed to sign the ticket and be in court at the appointed time and place.

This was just one of the lighter-sides of my years in Zone Six..

Another Close Call

But for the Grace of God

I was honored to have served with the two fine officers in the article below.
It was shift change and Office Fletcher was waiting at the side door for me to turn over the vehicle so that he might pull his eight hour shift.
As I pulled up to him a call went out that there was trouble at the bank in the north end of town. The bank was in my zone I had been working that day shift. I advised Officer Fletcher I would take the call since he was yet to get his equipment ready to load into the vehicle.
Officer Fletcher advised me that he would take the call and I went into the headquarters building to dress down into civilian clothing. I was not aware of the events taking place at the bank until I arrived home. I found my mother and wife waiting anxiously because they had not given the name of the fallen officers. Needless to say, my wife and mother were very distraught and very happy to see me walk into the house. I must say I was very blessed and happy to walk into the house.
I feel it was God's grace that kept me from taking that call. However, I thought for sometime, "That should have been me."
Please read the article about these two very brave officers and the strange things that can happen to Our Finest.http://www.wpbpolice.org/william_h_fletcher.php

It was THAT Close

NO PARADES ALLOWED

Governor Claude Roy Kirk, Jr.
Florida's 36th governorship was marked by several milestones. Most notably, Claude Kirk was elected the first Republican governor since 1872. Kirk had previously been a Democrat but became an avid GOP leader during the 1960s. In another milestone, Kirk was one of only three Florida governors to marry during a gubernatorial term. He wed Erika Mattfeld at West Palm Beach in 1967. In the next three years the Kirks had two children, Claudia and Erika Henry. Soon after, in 1970, Kirk's older daughter, Katherine Gilmer Kirk, was married.


It was the day of Governor Kirk and Erika's wedding. Bright sunny day with a beautiful breeze coming off the ocean. I was in the station filing a report when I was dispatched to the church where the Governor was to be married. There was a lone man protesting the marriage by walking back and forth in front of the church. I was advised to see that he left the area before the wedding started.

When I arrived there was a white male in his twenties walking along the sidewalk in front of the church. He was dressed in a suit and appeared to be just walking down the street. However, when he turned to walk back I could see a sign hanging on his chest. As he approached me I could see what the sign read, "Erika Is A Whore".

I immediately advised the subject to approach me with his hands in front of him. I asked him what he thought he was doing. He stated he was protesting the Governor of Florida marrying a woman of ill-repute. I advised him that if he did not have a permit to march on city streets (which I knew he did not) that he would have to leave the area or be subject to arrest. He argued for a moment and stated he had the right to protest the wedding and started to walk away from me.

I told the gentleman to stop and to come back, but he continued walking away. I shouted to him to stop and I started to walk after him. It was at this time he started to turn around to face me and was reaching into his suit coat. As instinct has it, I immediately went for my gun, dropped to one knee and aimed at his chest. I was just about to pull the trigger as I yelled for him to put his up and don't move. The hammer on my Colt revolver was about half-way back and about ready to slam forward on the cartridge. I was about to take a man's life for the first time in my life. As I aimed for his chest, he pulled a Bible from his coat and said, "The Lord will take care of the Governor in his owe good time".

I holstered my revolver and placed the man on the trunk of my police cruiser spread-eagle and handcuffed him. I placed him under arrest and returned to the station to book him on charges of parading without a permit. I am not sure to this day if Governor Kirk and his beautiful bride were ever aware that the incident even took place. I never told him.

POUNDING SAND

Zone Six – Beach Patrol

Palm Beach Police Department (If you hadn’t noticed yet, in the eight years as a police officer I worked at four different departments. Therefore, I have various stories from all sides of the tracks.)

Late evening with a cool breeze blowing off of the Atlantic Ocean, myself and another officer were checking houses that were vacant for the off season along A1A in Palm Beach. We approached Sloan’s curve traveling south and observed a red sports car parked along the west shoulder of the road. It was partially on the road and no one was around the car.

First we checked the houses and grounds around the car and could find no one home or any indication anyone had entered the homes. No signs of burglary or attempts to enter any of the buildings in the immediate area. We were aware that some burglars will walk along the Intracoastal Waterway or even the beach to gain access to homes without being seen. The fact that they had left their car on the road made no sense at all.

We then started to check the approaches to the beach area. These are long wooden stairs that go from A1A to the beach down below. We walked about a half mile following tracks of two people walking north along the beach. They seemed to be heading towards the Sloan Mansion. When we arrived at the bottom of the very long stairway up to the mansion we noticed the foot prints stopped there.

We drew our weapons and started up the stairs very cautiously. About halfway up the stairs we could hear rock and roll music playing. As we neared the top of the stairs we could hear a girl moaning and squealing and a man panting and growling.

To our surprise as we reached the top of the stairs we observed this bright white shinny derrière sticking up in the air going up and down between this young ladies thighs. It was not standard operating procedure, but we watched for about a minute. Then the young lady noticed us over her male companions shoulder. At first, we didn’t think they were going to stop.

Finally, they stopped and we advised them to stand up. At this time, as a precaution, we had our revolvers drawn. This young man was pretty horny. He didn’t even lose his erection during the interview. To cover himself he hung his t-shirt on the head and continued to talk with us. The young lady didn’t bother covering up. It was a rather interesting evening along the beach that night. We didn’t arrest the subjects, but we did escort them to their car and advised them to get a motel room.

That is only one of the many tales of this sort during my eight years as a police officer in Palm Beach County Florida.

WHEN WILL IT END??????????

FLEAING

If you have or ever have had a pet (or two) you will know exactly what I am talking about... FLEAS!!!!
I am sitting here itching (no fleas on me) for no reason... It's psychological. But I still itch.
I bring up this pesky problem because we have FLEAS at the Studio. This is from T.V.,our mascot and his friend Squeeky. They have transferred to different places but left this little calling card.  It is not bad enough we work in the boondocks (see photos on New Abilities TV Gallery) where there are an abundance of Fleas and Ticks "Pine Forests" .... actually, Pine Tree Farms.. Pretty cool all lined up in rows you can look through for longs distances. Ah, Another blog later.
We are combating the fleas by spraying and setting off [bug] bombs. Once was not enough... Yep! Twice for this little Studio building... This should get the eggs now also... Not going to open it up again for four or five days (Unless the Station goes down).
Speaking of fleas, ticks, vermin and Washington..  I was listening to Jerry Doyle, like Limbaugh, Beck, etc.. driving home tonight.  I got pretty worked up about the Government wanting to take our IRAs and give us Phunneee Munneee (Bonds, Stocks, IOUs)... "THEY" have already had meetings concerning doing this to AMERICAN Citizens... Not a THEORY Not a HOAX.... Check out Jerry Doyle on the Internet and get a book by Smith.. The first couple hundred are FREE with Feed Back Guarantee.. I hope to get one soon.
Will finish up with this stuff a little later in the morning. Just had to get it off my mind. I thought about it all the way home "200 miles"...
God Bless Will Blog you later.
OH! I've been thinking of doing a VeeLog (Video Blog I think).. Later

CAT and MOUSE THING

INTERNET CONNECTION

Just got back from the Studio (White Springs) 40mile round trip to put our station back up... Was down for an hour or so.  Our webpages stay up but the slightest (mirocmilisecond) interuption will stop the program I am using.  Will be upgrading to Scala this week and we will have a schedule posted as to what is playing.. The Internet Connection will phuq that up if it goes down. We really need to get on the Ehternet hookup ($300.00 month) and there, theoreticly, no down time. We shall see.

CHANGE STREAMS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COURSE

Catch 222.... There is always a challenge in whatever you decide to do.  As my wife said"Challenges... Opportunites in the making" which just happens to be our slogan for New Abilities TV. Great wife!! Realllly Smart!   Anyway.....
Things are turning around and around for us at New Abilities TV... Changing in format, satellites, dish transmission... But we shall continue onward and upward... In the growing stages of a new enterprise there are always "things" that happen.  No matter how hard you work at keeping them to a minimum.  Sometimes they are just more than you can deal with.  I had one of those days yesterday...
Went off on a friend about nothing happening and no one responding to our needs, to help the people with disabilities. Just getting anxious and concerned that we might not make it.  Once I blew off the steam I was (am) okay...
Since 2004 I have been working, trying to get New Abilities TV running...  That doesn't include the years Chuck was working on it. We have lots of blood,sweat,tears and dollars in this venture.. but as the French say, "Say-La-Vee" (they spell it different). Just keep going until you drop. Can't stop now too much involved. Soooooo many hours dedicated to getting ready...
Anywho, I lam working on other things right now, but will keep everyone posted on the Station NATV.

No SE Hespanol

Why is it I go about two three blogs forward and I get Spanish or someother country. I don't want to read spanish. I can't read Spanish (can't speak it either). Does anyone else have this problem???

SECOND BLOG

As I mentioned earlier, I have a second blog, PIX by "E". YOu may be interested in some of the video and photos I have been uploading. And again.... Maybe not. But if you want to see some pretty good stuff, stop by andytime by clicking on TV (the cat)

KITTENS

Anyway, as I was trying to say earlier....

When we adopted Ms Kittie she became very ill after a few days here. She ended up costing us $436.97 in Animal Clinic Fees.. The said they thought she might bitten into an electrical wire.

We adopted another kitten for her to have a friend but the kitten became very ill and died. The vet had no idea what caused it.

The next kitten we adopted we watched very closely and it became ill. However, she (Precious) survived and is well and accounted for.

We did however, (kinda) figure out what "might" have happened to the other kitten... The common denominator of events was "Swiffer" cleaning fluids... We only know that my wife Swiffered the floors on both occasions the kittens were ill or died.

We have stopped using Swiffer and the cats seem okay... I am not saying Swiffer is a bad product, but I am saying that some cleaning fluids are not good for pets to come in contact with. The pick up everything on the floor or ground and then lick themselves....

Just wanted to get that info out. We sure love our cats and want all cats to be safe and cared for. All cats need to be spray and neutered... I also thought the word was "Spae & Neutered"..

Learning something new every second..

Blog ya later...

Ernie

DEAD KITTENS

I just finished blogging a long blog about my kittens that died. The PHUQING thing just disappeared.

Excuse my French but I am a little disgruntled..... Now I don't even want to blog the story.

I will finish it some other time.

Time!

Where in the world does everyone (bloggers) find the time to do this. I am so busy with the set up of the new station, I can barely find time to blog.

But as that may be.... Here I am again.

We are now just awaiting the results from Dish TV and then we will know what to do next. I am at a loss right now. I am not sure what to do. I guess I will just keep getting ready.

Will blog you later.

TV & SQUEEKY

Our mascots at New Abilities TV, TV and Squeeky have left. Squeeky went home to be with her brothers and sisters. TV just disappeared one day. I am hoping someone stole him. The alternatives are too nasty to mention.

We finished making up a schedule for NATV and about ready to submit to Dish Network. Will keep you posted on outcome.

Oooooops!

Looks l ike I have created two sperate blogs thinking it was one. Anyway if you click on the Siamese cat it will take you to the Photo Blog I am working on.

LIMBO

As things have it, we are still working very hard to get this thing going.

Still working on the finances and training information. Looking everywhere and nothing there that we can afford FREE!!!