What could have gone wrong?!?!?!

Rumor on the street was that I was going to be hired for the open District Court Commissioner slot.

Well, the rumors, were just rumors. Everyone that had inside information said "What the hell?" when I told them I had not got the job.

Since my last post, I finally met up with a US Park Police officer I have talked to online since 2000. In eight years, we never could get our schedules to line up right to meet up. He was even the person that gave me the right contact information to schedule the ride along that I enjoyed so much. Lately we have been texting and instant messaging each other, and we both happened to have a few free minutes, so we met up. He seemed to be a good guy, loves his job, gave me hell for not getting myself back to agility shape to apply to his agency, and whatnot. I told him I thought I was going to get hired by the District Court Commissioner and he was proud of me for finally making a step towards law enforcement.

Freddy and I went to the University of Maryland vs. California game at Chevy Chase Bank Field. Kelly's parents sold me the tickets for half face value because they had to go to something else, and Kelly was already working at the game. What was really annoying for me was the fact all the Troopers kept saluting Freddy, because of his rank before he retired from the MSP. It was already starting to annoy me a little bit, because of my MSP epic fail story. But then Freddy kinda rubbed it in my face making a comment about it. It put me in a bad mood for part of the game, until I saw a ghost from Christmas past. Above the section we were sitting in, was my Lieutenant from when I was an intern for the Park Police. I went up and talked to him for a few minutes, then he had to step away when his radio went off. I had expected him to have retired from the Park Police by now, but he told me he was staying on to max out his pension and time it so he retired around the time his wife, who is also a Lieutenant for the MSP, would turn in her badge. Grrrrrr, another MSP reference. At the end of the game I went over to the section where Tricia, Dan and Jessie were sitting and talked to them for a few minutes. Afterwards, Freddy and I went to Costco to get some random things he needed, and then he took me out to dinner at Jaspers in Greenbelt.

On Monday I cleaned out the remaining stuff in two of the vacant apartments and sent it up to Dan and Tricia's place in Tacoma Park. They were glad to get the dressing armoire, dresser, bakers rack, two random metal beds, a surge protector, light bulbs and a few other random odds and ends. When Tricia got home from class, the three of us went out to the diner in Silver Spring. When we returned, the broke the news to me that they were getting married! I was so excited for them, I knew that it was getting to be time. The funny thing was I kept joking with them about name changes and whatnot earlier in the night.

On Tuesday I got the letter that shocked the nation.

On Wednesday, I went to work, depressed, but worked enough to do what needed to be done.

Thursday I left to go up to Deep Creek Lake. I took it easy all weekend, going out to the new Microbrew off Sang Run Road. It was good. On Sunday some friends were having a cookout at their place. I got super drunk, made an ass of myself, including throwing up all over the place. My chest is still sore a few days later.

Tuesday at work I met with some staff from 4th Presbyterian Church to give away some of Adam's stuff. I'm kind of disappointed that I was not given the chance to ask for any of it, especially since I have given seven years of my adult life working at the complex. What is worse yet is the tools may be given away to the church, a few of which I have borrowed many times in the past to do side jobs.

Today before I went to work I filled out paper work for a few other District Court Commissioner positions that are open. Too bad two of them are contract and at will, but it would be better than being unemployed. They were working on the roof too when I got to work, so I finally will be able to fix the ceiling in Joe's apartment next week.

I dropped my car off at the dealership before I went to Deep Creek, I picked it up tonight after work. They finally fixed the leak in the tire (it was the tire pressure sensor), ordered the parts for a second fix of the drivers seat, and could not duplicate the problem with the gearbox. I'm getting really frustrated with the 2-3 upshift grinding problem.

Starting October 1st, my parents rental property will be vacant again. We are going to do some repairs, but not as extensive of a refurbishment as last time. Hopefully my parents can get it re-rented quickly so my mom can buy a new car. Also my sister and brother invited me to go to Las Vegas with them in early November, so I am looking forward to getting four new states (and unfortunately only four new counties) while I am out there. At least I will be able to clinch I-15 in Nevada and Arizona. :-)

I guess I am back to claim what IS mine

Well well well, look what Cthuhlu drug back into the world of blogging. Little ol' me.

I guess everyone is wondering what happened to me. Did I get into the Maryland State Police? Who did I support for Maryland Gov? The presidential primary?

Lets flash back to May 2006 for a moment. My brand new 20" Sony LCD TV did a face plant in my bedroom. I was devastated because the damn thing cost me roughly $500. Later that evening I was on the treadmill at the gym, runing at 7.2 MPH. About 15 minutes into my 25 minute run, I misplanted my left foot, causing me to fly off the treadmill and bust my ankle bad. This happened precisely at midnight. Fortunately my personal trainer was there, watching the NBA finals. He was able to render first aid. Later that day, I went to get it checked and ended up with a very severe sprain. My ankle looked like a red tennis ball. The doctor told me that I would have been better off if I had just broke it.

On Friday of that week, I had my physical with the MSP doctor. That seemed to go well, and he was hoping for a quick recovery on the ankle.

Then the following Monday, all hell broke loose on that end. I had my first polygraph. That did not go very well. Some issues were dug up that really should not have been issues, but since they were issues in my mind, I failed on some questions. The polygrapher worked to get to the bottom of what was bothering me and it ended up to not be that big of a deal, it would just require a second polygraph. However this held me over by a couple hours. My psychological scheduled for 12:30 in Towson. At 1:45, I was just leaving the MSP barracks in Glen Burnie. Not good. The polygrapher called recruiting and I called recruiting. I burned rubber to get to Towson. I did my psych. Despite being over two hours late, I thought everything went well. The following Tuesday I got invited back for a second polygraph. I passed this one. I thought everything was in the clear. Well, I noticed that no one was being interviewed or contacted from my background booklet. Then I got the letter. I was given a lifetime disqualification from employment with the Maryland State Police and my conditional offer of employment was withdrawn. After doing some checking around, I found out that I failed my psychological. I was labeled "socially awkward", "a high risk for domestic violence", "high risk for substance abuse", "would be habitually late for work" among other derogatory statements. Before going to the psychological I had my ass torn apart by the polygrapher, so I was not on my best. He held me late. That was not my fault. It is not my fault that my dad was abusive towards me. It is not my fault that I have had two cousins that have been in and out of rehab. Yet so much was used against me to paint a picture of someone that would be an chronically late, unstable person. I was devastated. Even today, almost two years later, I am still devastated. Many people that have read the report wondered where some of these profound conclusions came from. I have no answer for them.

Things kept getting worse. In June 2006, my truck was hit for a second time, same front right corner, because someone decided to run the shoulder of the entrance ramp and thought that I was going to let him in. I did not even notice that Toyota Corolla next to me and all the sudden I feel my truck get jammed between this Corolla and the left curb of the highway entrance. The driver was not cited by DC Police, but got a stern lecture. His insurance ended up picking up the tab for the accident, however I had to live with the scars for nearly two months while this mess was sorted out.

Then once I finally got the truck to the body shop, I was issued a Ford Five Hundred as a rental car. I was on my way over to Rich's house in Arlington one evening. I was heading down a long hill on the highway near my house. I misread the speedometer and got clocked going 71 in a 50 MPH zone. The State Trooper that pulled me over was the most mechanical person that I have ever encountered. He wrote me for all 21 over, despite having a clean driving record by the computers eyes and the fact I was driving a rental car. I went to court, received probation before judgement in lieu of points, 16 hours of community service, and the full fine, court costs, and community service costs. I was disappointed in myself for making such a stupid mistake, but I was also disappointed that the Trooper showed very little mercy considering this was not my regular vehicle. At least after completing my probation before judgement, the ticket is completely gone from my driving record and it cannot be used against me for insurance purposes.

As the 2006 election season came upon us I had a choice that I was not happy to make. I could vote for Bob Ehrlich, a moderate Republican that started out to take over Annapolis. While I was extremely dissatisfied with his first two years, his second two years seemed to be tempered by reason and restraint. However, would he be emboldened by a reelection and turn into a second coming of Mitt Romney? Or I could vote for Martin O'Malley, the mayor of Baltimore City. As many long time readers of this blog are aware, I was very dissatisfied with his performance in regards to housing issues and I had a major bone to pick.

I picked the neither of the two choices. I voted for Ed Boyd, the Green Party candidate, despite the Green Party's view on the ICC. I also supported Ben Cardin in the Dem primary for US Senate, because the idea of Kweisi Mfume as one of Maryland's senators scared the living daylight out of me. I was disappointed that in Charles County every opposed Republican lost, which left our county government without a balance. Especially worrisome was the loss of Sheriff Fred Davis to Rex Coffey, who is a very sketchy character.

As the disaster of 2006 closed and 2007 began, my truck started to fall apart. The iPod dock stopped working. My drivers door handle jammed. The steering wheel radio controls started to do crazy things. The heated seats died. The rear differential had to be rebuilt. The ABS computer self destructed. Many of these things were not covered by the Chrysler backed extended warranty that I was sold when I bought the truck. In October 2007, after having the ABS computer go bad, I ended up buying a 2008 Honda Accord EX with leather. I picked the 4 cylinder with a manual transmission, because I have always wanted a stick shift car. I got a good price ($400 over invoice) on it considering this was a new design of a popular car. I kept the Ram for my business, driving it back and forth to work, while driving the Accord for "pleasure use".

In January 2007, the owner of the buildings where I work died. The trustee who had become strangely religious over the past few years, had convinced the owner to leave one building to his church. Well, some issues between him and the church lead to him attempting suicide and his mom taking him to her home away from the DC area.

In March of 2007, some of my friends made some very poor decisions during a weekend getaway at Deep Creek Lake. I will not elaborate, but it has put a lot of strain on long time friendships, some of which have gone back over ten years.

At least in December 2007, I went hunting and got a rather large doe as my first kill. I was very proud of myself. However I was not proud of the Maryland legislature increasing taxes as much as they have. This, along with Martin O'Malley's fetish for bringing photo radar to Maryland, has left a very bad taste in my mouth. I had suspected back in 2006 he was going to be bad, but never *this* bad. There is no way I will ever vote for him after his first term as Gov. There are two types of Democrats. One type wants to help people be their very best, protect them against anti people business practices and whatnot. And then there is the type of Democrat that likes to protect the people from themselves. Martin O'Malley is the second type. And that's the dangerous type that leads me to dabble on the red side.

As far as the Presidential election, I initially was supporting Bill Richardson. I believed that he was the best qualified candidate, along with having the ability to bring a change of direction and the ability to work with all sides to bring about political and global peace. However, after he dropped out, I turned my support to Barack Obama. I have a strong dislike for Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that I liked Bill Clinton when he was president. If she ends up the nominee, I most likely will vote for John McCain, despite the fact that he is psycho hawkish about the Iraq War.

At least as I come up on the middle of April 2008, I know changes are in the wind. My job will be ending soon and I am already looking for work. I know by this time next year we will have a new President. And I know that the earth will turn in a period of 24 hours per day, 365.25 days a year. The more that things change, the more things stay the same.

Sorry about two years of absence. I'm back.

The Dog Would 'er Done Got Ya

I did a second ride along with the Maryland State Police, this time at "W" Barracks, which is in Garrett County. The Trooper I rode with was a native of Alleganny County, and was a eight year veteran of the department. He was an excellent Trooper to ride with, he kept quizing me on where we were, what the speed limit was along the road we were traveling on, what the lookout is for that was just broadcast on the radio. The first thing we did was pull over a car traveling on US 219 South near Northern High School. He was traveling 71 in a 55 zone. However, we let him go with just a verbal warning, because we got dispatched to a domestic dispute in Friendsville. We were the first unit to show up on the scene. The woman was injured, and the Trooper asked for an ambulance to transport her to a hospital. The the Garrett County sheriff's office responded to the call, and took over from there. The gentleman who assaulted the woman came back to the scene and was arrested. This incident made the local radio station this morning, which was kinda a surprise to me. Then we ran some more traffic stops using moving radar in the cruiser. What is interesting about that is the fact that the radar can get a clock in about half a second, which would make a radar detector useless. Then we stopped and ate dinner, which was obtained from the drive thru at the Burger King on US 219 and I-68 in Grantsville. Then we rode down to MD 495 (not the Beltway) and ran more radar with a canine Trooper. The first thing I noticed is that the Trooper looked a lot like K9 John. That was interesting to say the least. Then the second thing is his dog was verbal. We clocked a car traveling 93 MPH in a 50 MPH zone, and the Canine Trooper went after them. We followed suit, because it could have been a chase in the making. About a mile down the road, the man driving the car lost control and went into a ditch. Both the driver and passanger were not injured, but the car was probably totaled, even though the body of the vehicle looked fine, the undercarriage had a lot of damage. The driver of the car asked about if the dog was trained to sniff for drugs, and the Trooper I was riding with responded. "Nope, that dog is for if you ran in the woods, the dog would `er done got ya." That's probably the most notable quote I have ever taken from a ride along. Then we finished the tour of duty running more radar, and then entering traffic stop stats into the state police database. Overall this ride along was one of the best I have ever been on. The ride along I did last week (which I did not blog about) was an excellent one too.

Virginia decided that they prefered Democrat Tim Kaine over Republican Jerry Killgore. Jerry Killgore spoke at my niece's high school graduation back in June. I was not impressed with him at all then, and as the campaign geared up, the negative tone turned off a lot of voters, resulting in a Democrat winning office. Virginia is a very conservative state, and this win might signal what could happen next year in other states.

Well, I'm enjoying Garrett County. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekends.