Idzeeboo's Blog

My wife and I met my in-laws for dinner tonight at the local Pizza Hut for a bite to eat. While there, two of the instructors that I know from the police academy came in to eat and ended up sitting right behind us.

As we were getting ready to leave and pay, we spoke to them at the register. He let me know that he would be calling soon (to set up the oral board interview) but said that they were going to be pushing back the academy start date again - to October. CRAP!!!

On one hand, this gives me even more time to lose weight/get in shape. On the other hand, I have to wait for TWO months now.

Oh well, patience has never been my thing. I guess I'll have to revert to my Navy training so that I can 'hurry up and wait'.

Exactly four weeks from today, I will be starting the police academy. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I am very excited and anxious to start the one year journey to the Florida state certification for law enforcement. On the other hand, I am very nervous about the physical aspects and what will be demanded of me. I think that if I can manage to get through the first month, I'll be alright. I am certainly not looking forward to losing almost all of my free time for the next year. The schedule will be pretty rough - work all day, school all night. It will be worth it though.

We are slowly but surely recovering from Paul's death last month. It still seems rather strange not having him around and we all still have our moments where we think about him and cry for a little while. It still hurts. We all miss him deeply.

The kids have started back at school (finally!). It's always a great time for me when the kids return to school because I get a pay raise -of sorts. You see, while they are home all day during the summer they eat 24x7. At least while they are at school my grocery bill goes down slightly. Of course, that gets offset by the hundreds of dollars I have to spend on school supplies, field trips and new clothes. But still, its good to have them out of the house for a while. (I'm sure Boomer loves it too!)

I passed my police academy PT entrance exam today! Here is the breakdown of what I did:

Push-ups: 32 in 60 seconds
Sit-ups: 36 in 60 seconds
1.5 Mile run: 15 minutes, 40 seconds
Officer mobility course: 56 seconds

What a HUGE relief it is to finally get that monkey off my back. It has been worrying me for a few months now. I'm not sure why I was so paranoid but I am certainly glad it is done.

The next step is an oral review board (interview) with some police officers and then the night academy class should start on September 24th.

Woo-hoo!

[This is a post from my youngest son about his Uncle Paul]

Me and my uncle Paul we very close together. We did so much fun things together. One day i was at home watching tv and my dad had just got home from work and told me and my brothers that my uncle Paul had just past away in a fatal car accident.I was devastated . I burst into tears.later on that day me and my father and my brothers went to my aunt house to keep her company because of what had just happened. 4 days later my family and uncle Paul's family went to his funeral and it was very very hard seeing my uncle in a casket.About an hour later in the funeral I gave my aunt and my uncle Paul's parents a folded American flag that would be put in the casket. to this day it is still very hard knowing that my uncle is not their any more but all that counts is that he was the greatest uncle and I will always remember him.

It was bound to happen. I finally had a semi-boring ride along! Saturday's ride along was in the absolute worst section of the entire city... the dreaded Zone 5. A constant parade of murders, shootings (some by police and some by the bad guys), drugs, stabbings, vandalism and a variety of other crimes are committed there on a daily basis.

Wouldn't 'ya know it. The one day I go for a ride along, they have the quietest day they've had in months! There were still some pretty cool calls and I finally got to transport someone to jail and witness that whole process. It was still a pretty cool day but a little boring.

Another neat call was a domestic situation which turned into an assault and mini-brawl between family members. The sad part was that it was a family gathering after a funeral when the fight broke out. One guy took a brick to the back of another guys head which partially dislodged his eyeball! We spent a little while at the Shands trauma center in Jacksonville waiting to hear word on his condition from the CT scan. He will be OK.

While we were there, another family got the bad news that their loved one had died. I think it was a child. It was a very sad scene with a lot of screaming and crying and it brought up some all too fresh memories of my brother-in-laws passing. I hate hospitals.

I only have 12 more days until my next academy PT test. Although I am still nervous, I think I will do well eneough to start the academy in September. It will be a relief to finally get through all this!