Take me out to the ball game!

My first foray in to the the 42 list was....... #9. Attend a Brevard County Manatees Baseball Game. I loaded up the kids, one of their friends, "Super Hubby", and my good pal, Jessica and off we went.

We had tickets to sit on the berm, which is behind left field. We brought chairs to sit on and the $12 ticket, also included all you can eat burgers, hot dogs, chips and ice cream. This made "Ender" very happy! During the 7th inning stretch, Manny the Manatee, takes all the kids under 12 for a run across the field. "Ender" was also very happy with that!

The weather was great, warm and breezy. The Manatees were trailing 2 to 0, in the bottom of the 7th, when Manatee 2nd baseman, Greg Hopkins #14, hit a home run! It landed on the berm and "Ender" grabbed it! He was so excited and yes very very happy! His big brother, Rabbit, took him over to the dug out and Hopkins said he would sign it for "Ender" as soon as the game was over! An error by the other team allowed the Manatees to score two more runs, in the bottom of the 9th! Manatees win!

"Ender" got the ball signed, and we went home. We had a blast and we will be doing it again sometime soon.

Day one!

I started my juice and raw food only 10 day challenge today. It is harder than it looks, as I am sure you can imagine.

I started my day with a large glass of water. Part of this plan is to drink water until you are able to breathe under it, I think! Then, I made my first juice. Here is what I put in the juicer....4 carrots, 1 green apple, 1 cucumber, 1 stalk of celery and 1/2 of a peeled lemon. It was easy to do but I underestimated the amount of time for clean up so I didn't get a picture of it. I had to get to work.

Yea, about that....fasting and work do not go together, at all. "The Cucumber Cooler", that I call the above recipe was not good but it was not bad. It is hard to describe it. But I drank it and went to work.

Work....sigh. I go all over for work and I never realized how many places serve food!!!! OMG! So, by 11:00 AM and two more bottles of water, I wanted to kill the world!

At lunchtime, I was lucky enough to go home and make a juice. I made the "Mean Green", that is the juice, Joe Cross, made a lot in the movie. It's 6 kale leaves,1 cucumber, 4 stalks of celery, 2 green apples, a 1/2 of a peeled lemon and a piece of ginger. OOOOKKKKK!

If anyone tries this, use a very, very, very, small piece of ginger, it is over powering!  Again, it was not horrible but it was not anything, I would crave....ever.

By 2:00 PM, I was feeling better, not so hungry but I started to get tired. I had no coffee, which is a miracle in it's self, I live on coffee. But I pushed through it, being busy at work helped.

For dinner we had salad, with kale, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers,onion, carrots and radish. It's only a little past 7:00 PM and I am ready for bed...I feel strange, not bad but.......just strange!

I Harm None but I Carry a Gun!

My heart and prayers go out to the people of Aurora, Colorado. I let my two oldest go to our local theater for the midnight show of "Batman" last night, how many Moms are regretting that same decision today...

This is why I carry my firearm EVERYWHERE...

I am not saying one off duty cop could have kept anyone from being killed but maybe not so many would have been hurt.

These crazy mass shooters almost always give up without a fight, once the police arrive and there is a threat of return fire, because they are cowards!

I know many in the Pagan community detest guns. I detest innocent people being killed going to see a movie. I believe that "Harm None" includes protecting the innocent from harm.

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." - Edmund Burke

Princess Reiki Update - Sassy Cat!

Reiki has been part of our family  for a little over 2 months now. She looked sassy today, so I decided to take her picture to show how great she is doing! Her eye has fully opened but she can't see out of it.
Her new thing, besides chasing poor Bailey dog, is to sit on the back of my computer chair when I write. Here she is on the chair, love the look on her beautiful face!

Princess Reiki Update!

I am a dog person, always have been, but this little beast has totally stolen my heart!  In the last 20 days she has started eating real food, both eyes are open, but it is unknown if she can see out of the left one) and is beginning to explore.

 

She is is doing so well. I have no doubt the Universe put "Reiki" in my path that day at work for a reason. She would not have survived another two days the vet said, now she is running our house, and that includes the 75 lbs dog!

There's a sucker born every minute...

8:32 A.M. was my minute! I was at work, doing my usual patrol stuff, thinking about my diagnosis from three days ago...

The radio sends out a tone alert, house fire, lady still inside. I hit the lights and sirens and when I get there, all I see are CATS! Lots of them. Cages and cages and cages piled up outside on the grass, and the Fire guys are bringing more out! The home owner was a cat hoarder!

We get the home owner and all the cats and her dog out and safe. The fire is put out. I start to count the cats, 10, 15, 20, 30, 36!!! 33 older cats, 2 nine week old kittens and 1 kitten, way too small to be with out a Mama cat.

As I count them, I attempt to check  their health. I will be calling the county animal shelter to get them on the way and they like a heads up on health. They do not want to risk bringing infected animals into the main shelter. I call the shelter and two Officers arrive. The home owner decides to give all the cats to the shelter.

All the cats look ok, not great, but not too bad, all except the little one. It's not moving and from where I stand, it doesn't appear to be breathing either. I love all animals but I do not go all mushy about them. I can't at my job, I see lots of hurt and dead animals.

But this little non-moving ball of fur, makes my eyes fill with tears. Maybe I am feeling over sensitive due to my own health issues, maybe I am getting soft in my old age, or maybe I have been on scene, at this call,  in the Florida sun to long. Whatever the reason, I decide to try and send some Reiki energy to it. I took my Level I  in February and Level II,  last month. I have been using it on plants, people and everything in between for practice.

I walk over to the cage, stand behind a bush (can't let the Fire Guys see what I am up to) :-).  I take a deep breath, I thank the Universe for allowing me to be helpful and I write the Cho-Ku_Rei symbol in the air, three times and push it towards the little kitten. The kitten opens one eye and LOOKS at me! Damn! I feel like one of the wolves in "Twilight", I am bonded, this is now my kitten.

There are only a few issues, one being my beloved "Super Hubby" is allergic, and that fact that I cannot receive or gain ANYTHING from being on a work call. No free coffee, no discounts at lunch, no free kittens!

The Animal Control Officers start loading up all the cats. I go with them to the truck, when they take the little one. I ask what's going to happen and the officers says it is to little for them to care for and if they can't find a foster home, they will have to put down. My heart sinks.

I call my Sgt. and I ask if fostering an animal counts as a gain. I will be spending money and it would not technically be my kitten so she says it is okay! Next, I call "Super Hubby" and I explain the situation, and being the S.H. that he is, he says "well, if it is meant to be your cat, I guess you will have to bring it home".

The kitten goes to the shelter, I go back to work. I start second guessing how all this is going to work out.

On my lunch break, I go up to the shelter and see the kitten. It's a girl and she still looks pathetic. Scrawny, skinny and can only half way open one eye. I take her picture and send it home to S.H. and the kids.

I fill out the foster application and the shelter approves it. I keep looking at her and thinking, I will call her "Baby Ugly", poor thing is a mess.

I go back to work for another 6 hours and at shifts end, I am back at the shelter picking up the kitten.

Now we are home, and the family is all checking out the new house guest. S.H. has gotten a box ready with a blanket and gone out and gotten kitten milk and tiny bottles, so I can feed her. As I write this, she is in the box, not looking great but I have hope for this blessed Reiki baby.

I think instead of "Baby Ugly", I will give her a beautiful name that she can grow into. Princess Reiki Sohia. :-)

All in a days work - Blue Moon, Black Friday (NSFW!!!!!)

This is a not safe for work or kids blog post!

Today is "Black Friday, that crazy, turkey fueled, shopping extravaganza! I live across the street from a mall and several big box stores. We saw people lining up for a few days before the holiday, for the good deals.

I went in service, this morning, at around 5:45 A.M. As soon as I turn on my radio, I heard a call come out at the mall, involving two males running through the line, hitting the waiting shoppers.

I was on scene in seconds, and I saw people pointing to a large white truck pulling away. I did a traffic stop on the truck and this is what I saw after the driver and passenger exited the truck.

I call this photo "Blue Moon, Black Friday". 

Two young guys thought it would be funny to wear only thong underwear and run through the crowd. The joke was on them though, this morning was very cold for Florida. It was 39 degrees, which when you are used to temps of 95+, IT IS COLD! They had to wait while we spoke to everyone who got hit, if the wanted to press charges for unwanted touching (battery). No one did but we still had to ask. They were freezing.

All in a days work - Tourists!

How can you tell if some one lives in Florida or is just a tourist? A tourist will call the police about a massive gator in the ditch by their vacation rental.

I go out and see this little guy. He is maybe 3 feet long. I wish I had a picture of the guy from New York's face when I told him, we won't call a trapper or move a gator this small. Priceless!

The gator is where he is supposed to be, he is not in a yard or shopping center so he gets to stay! I think he is super cute!

All in a days work - Hog Wild!

I get to see and do, all sorts of strange and interesting things while at work. So, I thought I would do a re-occurring post about some of those things.

Today at work was like every other day, it's all the same, until it's not the same. I work for a city of about 100,000 people, we have urban areas but we also have a lot of undeveloped land. This can cause some fun moments for us at work, because of animals.

We received a call that a feral hog was loose in a backyard. This is disturbing. We have a pig problem! There are an estimated 500,000 wild pigs loose in the Florida woods, they can grow up to 200 lbs, they eat anything and everything and the males can become very aggressive.

Several officers and myself went to the residence, quietly approached the backyard and spend an hour trying to wrangle this fearsome beast!

I don't know if this little piggy was super fast or we were laughing to hard to catch him but we finally did. Several people in the neighborhood came out to watch us look very silly. I saw lots of phones so I am sure there is a Youtube video somewhere! :-)

I put Mr. Piggy in my patrol car and brought him deeper into the woods away from the houses. I thanked him for the fun and that I was happy to have met him.  Hope he stays safe and away from people.