Cop Car's Beat

Farewell, for Now

I just received a billing for one of my credit cards--with a real surprise in it for me.  It asserted that I had failed to pay my last billing, and that the last billing had a balance due on it.  You guessed it.  There is also a late fee assessed.  1)  I didn't receive a billing in January, nor did I expect to receive one since I had charged nothing to that card since having paid off the previous balance.  2)  The balance due that they showed was for the company that provides blog service for me.

TypePad had not contacted me about renewing my service for 2007, and they certainly did not have my permission to charge my 2007 fee to the same credit card this year as I had used my 2006 service.  But, can I call TypePad to complain?  No.  They don't do business by phone or fax.  So...I have submitted a problem form to the service asking that my blog service be cancelled, immediately.  I see no reason to do business with a firm that pulls such a stunt.  Too, I shall probably cancel that credit card to assure that they make no further charges to it.  Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be around to your blogs as a reader and sometime commentor.  Thanks for all the fish.

Cop Car

Chicago is Found Friendly

I have just spent 2 1/2 days in Red Cross training and meetings in Chicago.  Everyone of whom I requested help in Chicago was absolutely friendly and congenial.  Chicago's food was wonderful.  Thank you, Chicago! 

Since the forecast Chicago weather looked bad (awful!) for Sunday, the Red Cross gave us dispensation to fly into Chicago on Saturday.  By the time I picked up the email of dispensation, it was Friday late-afternoon; so, I didn't really think that I could be ready to hop on a plane the next morning.  And, from a pilot's point of view, the forecast weather looked better for Sunday than it did for Saturday afternoon.  I stuck with my Sunday late-morning flight.  Good call.  The people who flew from Wichita to Chicago Saturday afternoon, got most of the way there--only to turn around and come back to spend the night in Wichita. 

Three of us students were scheduled to arrive at O'Hare about 30 minutes after the Red Cross instructor's scheduled arrival.  The instructor was to rent a van and provide transportation to the hotel.  When we landed in Chicago, I called the instructor to arrange to meet him and the other two.  He was still in DC and it didn't look good for his getting into Chicago on Sunday, at all (he didn't!)  Lacking the cell phone numbers of my fellow students, I called one of the two Regional Managers who had set up the whole training/meeting session.  He didn't have their cell numbers with him and was away from the office.  (The other two students landed at about Midnight) I could take a shuttle for $23, a taxi for who-knows-how-much, or the subway for $2.  I chose to take the subway--saving the Red Cross dollars, you see.

Exiting on the stop that the instructional packet emailed to us students had indicated, my next problem was figuring out how to get up to street level.  The only signs at the stop (there wasn't even a sign indicating the name of the stop--fortunately, I heard the announcement on the car's PA!) instructed one to go down some stairs to catch a different subway line.  After much walking, I found an elevator that went up one level.  On that level, I eventually found the exit from the subway system.  The attendant directed me to another elevator that took me to street level.

The temperature at street level was in the low-mid 30s and there was snow falling, which immediately turned into slush.  I asked the first person I met to tell me which direction was south.  He pointed down the street.  I started following the "two blocks south, then three blocks east" directions from our packet.  After walking for six blocks, south, and failing to find the street that I was to turn east on, I stopped into the foyer of a building in which I could see a security guard.  She asked where I was going and gave me directions to go back to my starting point, turn left and go three blocks, etc.  As I was pretty wet by then, I dug my windbreaker out of my carry-on bag, and put it on--over my sleeveless tee and cotton great shirt. 

Returning to my starting point, I turned left, and walked six blocks without finding the street on which I was to turn.  I stopped into a small juice bar.  By this time not only am I soaked, but my bags are soaked, as well.  I must have looked like a drowned rat.  The two young women who worked there provided another set of directions.  (First, they asked why I didn't just take a taxi.  By this time, I told them, I was so wet that walking farther wasn't going to get me any wetter.  Stubborn?  Who, me? I was gonna walk there if it killed me!)

Their directions turned out to be good and correct.  (I had believed the directions because the young women had named the cross streets to which I would come before reaching the street on which I wanted to turn--a good sign.)  When I got a map from the hotel desk clerk, I was able to see that I had walked about 22 blocks, in all, after reaching the street level.  The "two blocks" and "three blocks" in my instruction packet were totally wrong and the security guard directed me in totally the opposite directions from those I should have been going.  Oh, well.  I hadn't got in my walk that morning, so I needed the exercise!  (Aggragating the amount of walking I had done in the airline terminals, in the subway system, and on street level, I surely got enough!) 

I learned a lot.  There were about 20 new people for me to meet.  I won't bore you with details of the actual training/tour of FEMA/etc.

Coming home, last night, was pretty uneventful.  My 4:45 PM flight had been canceled, the 6:45 PM flight was delayed to 8:15 PM, and we had to divert to avoid really strong thunderstorms/lightning, but we landed safely at 10:00 PM and Hunky Husband was waiting to greet me! 

A few weeks ago, I decided not to accept further Red Cross assignments until I had my own cell phone.  The Treo that I purchased Friday made it possible for me to easily handle changes in plans when I arrived at O'Hare (I easily contacted the instructor upon arrival) and when I left it (Hunky Husband didn't have to await the phantom flight at the airport!)  Not only that, I amused myself for a couple of hours, one evening, beaming files between the Treo and my iPAQ.  I like the iPAQ's larger screen and wish, now, that it had a built-in phone.  However, the Treo is also a PDA so when space is an issue I can carry it and leave the iPAQ at home.  Too much of the Treo is taken up with a physical keyboard which I don't use.  Almost totally, so far, I use the keyboard/dial pad on the screen which is much easier for a klutz to manage.

As a footnote:  One of my fellow students had worked with Hunky Husband on three disaster relief operations.  He described HH as being "very congenial".  How about that?!

Roses

Mother was one who loved her roses.  Always, she planted roses...around the foundation of our house...in the garden...wherever.  When we lived in Tulsa, the rose garden was one of her favorite places to visit when the family could take the time to go somewhere together.  I, on the other hand, equated roses with the seemingly constant toil, in my young mind, that it took to keep the rose beds free of weeds--particularly of native Bermuda grasses.  It was for that reason that I never ever planted roses...until Mom died, that is.  Something changed, when she died--I seemingly had to take over some of the collective mind that she had nourished within her head while she lived.  Since Hunky Husband has always loved roses, I chose the best spot in the back yard--surrounded on all sides by concrete, to lessen the amount of grasses that would creep in--to plant five rose bushes.  They flourished. 

The particular rose bushes that I planted were picked for one of two reasons (or both):  1)  they were a favorite of Mother's or 2) they were advertised as having great fragrance.  Among them were a Peace rose and a Double Delight.  Amazingly (to me), the roses all bloomed, the first summer after planting.  They were a bit of work (and I was still employed, of course); but, HH did his bit by assuming the duty of dusting the bushes and feeding them.  I was well pleased.

Year two:  astoundingly, the Peace rose bush produced among its blooms one that was perfectly formed--and 8.5" across!!  Wonder of wonders.

A couple or three years later, we built this house and moved into it.  I determined that the roses would stay at the old house and I would plant new ones, here--including another Peace rose.  But...HH didn't get around to selling the old house for a couple of years, and I changed my mind.  I brought the roses over.  Most of them, I planted along the neighbor's fence--nicely placed, but not up against the house as the old bed had been.  For some reason, though, I planted the Peace rose at the corner of the foundation--much too close to the house.  It has done well for the five or six summers that it has been here, but I've always meant to move it away from the foundation.  Today, I did it!

Last year, and the year before, warm weather had sneaked up on me and the rose had begun to grow before I got it transplanted.  Today was balmy (up to 40, I think--it was 25 when I went for my walk), so I went out and transplanted the Peace rose.  We shall see how it does--in its spot along the fence.  I hope that I didn't damage it too much in the transplanting. 

To My Valentine

Hunky Husband--You are my Rock of Gibralter, the soother of my spirits, the love of my life.  Thank you for being there, for helping me to muddle through, and for loving me!  You have all of my love, for always.

88--Cop Car

Talked Too Much

Obviously, I let it be known that I had room to breath, which caused our local Red Cross boss-lady, DH, to go into overdrive finding me something to do.  I had read on the National Red Cross web site that any unit that had been involved in providing help to those affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and/or Wilma had to archive its files--in a particular way--and had made note to speak with DH about it.  Then, HH and I went to Springfield and I simply didn't do anything about it until Tuesday.  That evening I picked up an email from DH asking if I would please head up the task force that would accomplish this feat.  Well, of course I would!

Wednesday, I did a little run-through that told me that we had about 32 worker-hours of copying to do.  At a Red Cross committee meeting, that afternoon, I began to enlist volunteers.  DH managed to snag a dedicated copy machine for us to use and gave us a space in which to set up our operations.  Thursday and Friday we put in 14 worker-hours in copying and we are nearly 1/2 done with that phase of the work.  Volunteers are lined up for Monday and Tuesday, so we should be in good shape--for getting the copying done.  Then, we must go through the files to assure that everything has been appropriately copied, that the copies are legible, and that files are arranged in the appropriate order.  By Friday, I expect us to have things ready to pack for shipment to the archival depot.  Monday (or Tuesday?) should see the shipment on its way.  Whew!  Although the deadline for getting the files to the archival depot isn't until February 28th, I will be leaving town on the 25th--for Chicago.

Chicago is the site of some (more!) Red Cross training that I wish to take (one day's worth), and then of 1 1/2 days of workshop on the same subject.  Then, I should be home for about one week before I attend a 1 1/2-day meeting (to fill in for the Red Cross guy who would normally attend but who will be in Louisiana giving a presentation) in Kansas City MO.  I am also being allowed to participate in the New Madrid exercise, in June, to test readiness for a large earthquake along the New Madrid (MO) fault line.  The training, the workshop, the meeting, and the exercise are all related to my Red Cross service in the Emergency Support Function #6--Mass Care with FEMA.  I'm really looking forward to all of it!

Unrelated, but still Red Cross:  Hunky Husband is co-instructor (the instructor, S, is our manager who retired last July) for a 2-day course in Disaster Instructor Specialty Training on March 31st and April 1st, and I have submitted my request to take the course.  (This evening, I completed the test for a pre-requisite, self-study course--Fundamentals of Instruction and Facilitation.)

Bottom line:  Other than the Lovastatin refill pickup, my to-do list has not been shortened.  I did stop in the dealership's service shop one day to see if they had time to install the boot (they had said that it wouldn't take much time) and check out my leaking tire; but, they were swamped--cars lined up down the block!  So, I continue to pump up the tire each morning and turn the water on/off.  I really need to get the medical appointments set up as they will take a few weeks to get in, anyway--maybe March or April.

To Do List

Now that I have a bit of breathing room, I'll get back to my "urgent" to do list.  If you wish to sign up to help, just send me an email, please.  (On the other hand, you would probably expect me to relieve you of one or two items on your own list, wouldn't you?)  Actually, my list is just full of little nit-picking things that I've been putting off.

Renew passport--I've been hoping to find my old one, which I missplaced about 17 months ago, now.  It had, with it, the filled-in form and photos.  The passport, itself, had already been expired for at least two or three years.

Have new shifter boot installed--Last June, the guys at the dealer's service department told me that they might be able to fix the old boot (it's the attachment device that had broken in 4 places).  But, when I got back with them in January, they had not been able to fix it so a new one was ordered.  They called to say it was in, the day HH and I left for Springfield MO.  I should have them look at the tire that I've been having to add air to for the last couple of weeks (it loses about 1 psi per hundred miles traveled.)

Have plumber out--Last June, the plumber couldn't find the leak that had caused water to pool under my sink (and out onto my bathroom floor).  Since then, I've determined where the leak is and coped with it by keeping the hot water turned off under that sink--except when I really need hot water.  I failed to turn off the valve when I showered to go to Springfield MO and came home to a really wet floor.  It's time to get it fixed!

Rollover 401K to an IRA--This has only been on my list for about six months.  I did transfer all of my 401K holdings to "cash-type" from other securities to make the rollover simpler.  I need to get the appropriate paperwork. 

Fill out Non-Probate Transfer on Death certification for non-IRA investment account--I've only had the papers to fill out for a couple of months, now.  I asked for HH's input on this and he is supposed to have been considering what best to do, these last two months.  (I can leave the account to him or leave it to our kids.  Tax laws make a difference.  But, why should I give our kids reason to aggravate me to death?  *grin*)

Take the broken nylon bearing to the La-Z-Boy people--It broke (with a THUNK!) several weeks ago and I can no longer fully recline that chair.  However, I cannot spot where the bearing had been installed (the pieces flew all over the place), so will see if the people at the dealer can help me.  If I cannot fix the chair at reasonable cost, I'll "have" to buy a new chair.  I think this one is only 12 years old.

Go see my physician--It's about time I had a physical, anyway.  My "back" is no longer bothering me.  And my squish date was never made, last year, so should probably do that this year.  (Note:  Most lumps are found in women's breasts through self-examination--which I perform faithfully.)

Pick up Lovastatin refill--The refill was ordered last Monday, but I just haven't picked it up.  I'll handle this one, myself, if you readers would take care of the others???!

May we all have a good week!

Keeping Up With Mass Care

Basic Mass Care (Cop Car's version):  Providing for the eating and sleeping needs of the people affected by disaster--on an interim basis--while they are making other arrangements.

As planned, I drove to Hutchinson KS on Friday (and again on Saturday) to partake of the fount of knowledge supplied by one of the most experienced Red Cross volunteers in my acquaintance.  Up front, he told me that he saw no earthly reason for my taking the class, and that he wasn't sure that I would gain anything from taking the class since I didn't really have the pre-requisite experience.  The class, Mass Care Leadership Training, is for Supervisors/Managers/Administrators of Mass Care operations, in which I have no experience--even as a worker bee.  (I have, however, passed all of the basic courses that are offered by the Red Cross--in Mass Care.)  In my Emergency Support Function #6--Mass Care work, representing the Red Cross in FEMA operations, I am supposed to be able to supply expertise to the government--in Mass Care.  Lacking the hands-on experience, I thought to make up for some of that lack through education.  (Sometimes that approach works.)

At the end of Friday's class, the instructor said that he was surprised--that I had actually kept up with the other students in the class and contributed.  As I told him, most of the reason that I could do either was the Mass Care operations in Springfield MO (while assigned as leader of the Government Liaison Group) that I'd been able to observe in the Disaster Response Operations HQ.  How fortunate for me!!  And, it was an excellent call on Hunky Husband's part when he advised me that I would get more out of going on the Springfield assignment than I would get out of the Supervisor in Disaster classes (also held in Hutchinson) that I would miss by being on assignment.  Great call, HH, thanks!

P.S.  The rest of the reason that I could keep up and contribute was the experience that I've had on all of my Red Cross assignments.  Supporting Mass Care people has been a big part of them!  After all:  Mass Care is what the Red Cross means to most of our clients.  The rest of us disaster response workers are there,basically, to help the Mass Care folks do their jobs.

SEAT and I

The Adjutant General of our state had an assembly of people involved in emergency management training, dubbed SEAT (Statewide Exercise Advisory Team), assemble in Topeka, yesterday.  Our Red Cross chapter's manager of disaster response and planning was invited to be a member of the team.  Unfortunately, our chapter was scheduled to undergo its every-third-year evaluation exercise during these last three days (Jan 30 - Feb 1).  As this is DH's first such evaluation exercise, as manager, she understandably felt the need to be there for the chapter.  As all of the really experienced people whom DH might normally have asked to fill in at the SEAT meeting, for her, would also be called upon to participate in the chapter's evaluation exercise, we decided that DH would take on my role in the evaluation exercise (leading the liaison group activities) and I would attend the SEAT meeting, for her.  All is well.

At 5:30 AM, yesterday, following only 3+ hours of sleep, I pulled out of our garage into the chunky-ice strewn driveway and street that would lead me to a major arterial to the outside world.  At 8:00 AM, I checked in with the guard at the building in which the meeting was convening, traded my driver's license for a badge, and walked up the stairs and around the serpentine hallways to find the meeting room--30 minutes before the scheduled start time.  Not bad.  (I had come through snow flurries on the way, but nothing major.)  By the time we dismissed, at 2:50 PM, we had had about an inch of snow, in Topeka, and we were hearing horror stories about how bad it was in Wichita and how the street/highway conditions deteriorated as one traveled south.  After waiting for 20 minutes for the guard to return from his break, in order to retrieve our driver's licenses, and after scraping ice off of my car windshield and windows, I drove out of the parking lot at 3:30 PM.

Part of the freeway was snow-packed, especially in the passing lane, but if one paid attention, and stayed far back from the vehicle in front (which would throw a constant spray of dirty slush onto one's windshield), it wasn't too bad.  As we came farther southwest, conditions actually improved.  It was obvious that we were getting into areas of more snow accumulation, but the driving was better--for the most part.  When I left the freeway system, about 10 miles from our home, the highways were slushy and slick, and rush-hour traffic was afoot, but it still wasn't bad.  It wasn't until I hit our street, which had had about 5 inches of rutted ice on it when I left that morning, that I saw a problem.  Three or four inches of snow atop the rutted ice had not improved the driving.  Fortunately, the only traffic with which I had to contend was a UPS truck that was parked (for the moment) on my side of the street, and I was able to slowly, painfully, navigate to our snowed-under driveway, and slither up the drive and into the garage--without hitting anything!!  It was 5:15 PM.  Hunky Husband had beaten me home (from the local chapter's evaluation exercise--for which he acted in his capacity of job director) by only a few minutes. 

All's well that ends well.  HH is now at the chapter offices participating in the executive de-briefing by the folks that National HQ had sent in to do the evaluation.  HH's evaluation was that the folks had conducted the same sort of exercise that they would have used for a smaller, less capable chapter and did not, therefore, really test our true capabilities.  He planned to suggest that, in the future, the exercise be tailored to the expected capabilities of the chapter under evaluation.  This makes sense, particularly considering that the criterion of "success" is that a chapter is able to do what they had judged themselves capable of doing in their latest (in this case, May 2006) self-evaluation record.

Tomorrow and Saturday, I shall be taking some Red Cross training in Hutchinson (northwest of here)--about an hour closer to home than the Topeka (northeast of here) meeting.  I plan to drive up-and-back each day--unless bad weather "traps" me up there (not an expected event). 

Mini Disaster

While Hunky Husband and I lend a hand to Red Cross disaster services, on occasion, we weren't quite mentally prepared for our own mini disaster.  Let's set the scene:  Lazy Sunday afternoon, I had just finished marking the last of the 50 questions in the final exam on a FEMA course and was mentally preparing to go to the computer to input my answers on the FEMA web site.  Enter:  Hunky Husband, running up the stairs from the basement yelping, "Water.  There is water everywhere!"  I quickly put down my paperwork and followed him into his (upstairs) bathroom.  It was inundated with about 3/4" of water.  Water (fortunately, clear water) was overflowing the commode, had pooled on the floor, and was running down the furnace ducting--in addition to seeping under and around every bit of finish, wood trim.

I retrieved the "plumber's helper" and, while HH un-plugged the plumbing and un-stuck the float in the reservoir (most "disasters" are caused, as was the case here, by a double failure in a system), I started throwing arm loads of towels and sheets into the puddle.  When I had built a dam around the furnace duct to stop the water's going down it, I reminded HH that we had a wet vacuum in the shop--which he promptly retrieved.  We vacuumed and mopped for another 10-15 minutes.  Hardest was to soak up the water from the carpeting in HH's bedroom and in the hallway.  Of course, the padding was also soaked.  Then, we went down to the basement bathroom that sits under HH's bathroom. 

Water was pouring from it's ceiling-mounted furnace outlet and had flooded the floor--soaking out into the carpeting of the hallway.  We got a ladder and screwdriver to remove the grating from the duct and started another mop-up operation. 

Somewhere during this frenzy, I realized that water had come down the clothes chute that terminates in my kiln room--next to the bathroom.  Water had run into the shelves of stained glass and kiln accessories underneath the chute.  When we had vacuumed and mopped up the downstairs bathroom, the end of the hallway, and around the clothes chute, we set up fans to help further dry out the two bathrooms and the surrounding carpeting.  Then we sat in the living room, he with a glass of wine, I with a bottle of cranberry drink, to recuperate.  (When I told HH that we had now had our exercise for the day, he gave me a dour look and reminded me that he had run 4 miles that morning--no mean feat with the icy streets/sidewalks in our town.)

OMG!  I had not checked my sewing room--next door, on the other side of the basement bathroom!  Down, I flew.  Not a moment too soon.  Water had found its way to the fluorescent light fixtures in the closet and at one end of the room--the end where my sewing machine sits on its desk and where my fabrics hang/reside in bins--and proceeded to drip down onto whatever it found, below.  Water had also found its way under the wood finish trim to soak the carpeting around the edges.  Short version:  I will need to re-upholster my sewing chair (which I had just done a year or two ago), wash all of my quilting fabrics (and, worse, iron all of them).  The carpeting was soaked in about 1/4 of the room.  Oh, me.  Just shoot me now! 

We are booked up for this entire week (I am double-booked on Wednesday--but--will go to Topeka for a meeting, that day.)  As soon as I get over this week's activities, I need to get in to see my physician (I came up with moderate-to-severe discomfort in my back while on assignment in Springfield MO--and it isn't getting any better!) and get a plumber out to fix a problem with my bathroom sink (he couldn't tell where it was leaking when I had him out a few months ago.  Since then, I have figured out that the leak is in the fitting just above the under-sink cutoff valve and just keep the hot water turned off, under the sink, unless I really need hot water!  Of course, when I forget to turn off the valve, I have a very minor flood in my own bathroom!)  We have, at least, got all of the towels and sheets washed and dried! 

Amaryllis & Cop Car

For Christmas 2005, Bogie and her Wonderful Spouse sent my Hunky Husband a beautiful basket--with two containers of amaryllis bulbs nestled in it.  As I recall, the first to bloom bore white flowers--seven of them!  WS was a bit less than perfect in following the instructions; but, just now, there are three huge blooms on that plant.  Unfortunately, the beautifully striped amaryllis didn't make it, this time.  The bulb rotted instead of growing (might it have been a bit too damp?)  Here's the photo of the white one.  There is a fourth bud getting ready to burst into bloom on the stalk with the three that are open, and there is another bud stalk coming out.  HH is really enjoying his flowers, Bogie--as am I!

This is a "freebie".  As you can see, I still haven't figured out how to get a good picture of a black cat--Cop Car!  Here she is, with her shadow.  (Apparently, the camera has as much trouble as I in focusing on black!)