Vegas & Other Fun Stuff

When your hero last checked in he had nothing but good news to report.  This installment has some more good news sprinkled all around it but that of course comes with bad news. You’ll read plenty of both in this week’s installment of…The Triple F.  For starters with the good news though…I’ll be home 7 weeks from today!

Indian Run Wednesday

As you all know, I spent about 3 weeks fighting with this bronchitis bitch but have been feeling much better since Sunday but I had mixed feelings when I saw on the PT syllabus that we’d be doing an Indian run for a mile and a half.  For those you that don’t know, an Indian run is a group or team run in which the group jogs in a straight line and the guy in the back sprints to the front, when he gets there he yells “go” and the next guy sprints to front, etc.. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know about this little exercise, only 4 of us in the class did and I got to help demonstrate. Go me!

This is some younger kids Indian Running in a  parking lot.

I used to love this drill when we did it in the basketball off season in high school.  This would be the first time I ran at any great distance and the first time I ran outside since before getting sick so I was determined to make this happen and had we ran on the track I would have.  Occasionally, we run the streets around campus so we encounter a lot of hills.  I’d only run this course once and I crapped out VERY early when we ran it as a class.  I guess I’m much more acclimated now because I made it ¾ of the way without having to stop, despite my group forgetting it wasn’t a race and refused to keep a steady pace; the thing that killed me was the steep hill that we came to when it was my turn to sprint.  We were running in groups of 5, which meant more sprinting but less distances.  I felt great doing it but when 1 of our teammates dropped out due to the rigorous pace, the running intensified with the now smaller group and I was no match for the hill.  We’re never supposed to run alone out in the streets so I joined my teammate and we just jogged the rest of the way and made the running maniacs that refused to slow the pace Indian run their way to the end.  We were the first group done, waited for everybody else at the finish as we cheered them on and then had a few minutes to lift.  It was the first time Stan & I did squats all semester and the first time I’ve done them since high school.  They were tough but I feel they helped out on our little test we’d be taking on Friday. 

Class was okay but the Indian run in the cold brought back some of those bitchy bronchitis symptoms. They went away over night.  I predicted we would be having a uniform inspection today and I was right…good thing I shined my boots real fast between PT & class.  After our inspection, our director informed us about the test we had coming up which would also be the day we turn in our flashdrive notebooks for a test grade; mine needed to be updated BIG TIME.

After class I got bummer news, Laura most likely won’t be able to come out here at all during spring break.  That sucks! I spent the night updating my notebook, which included downloading every single PowerPoint presentation the instructors had used in their presentations, and I skimmed through the latest episode of Glee.  I then made sure I had everything in order to prepare myself for our first crack at scenarios where we had to put everything together that we’ve learned so far.  This exercise would mark the halfway mark of our class time. YAY!

I had a hard time sleeping, surprise surprise, so I looked up a bunch of different videos on Youtube and I gotta say…I wish I could workout with Dr. Dre’s personal trainer.  He looks amazing for somebody his age.

Not So Nice Guy

Along the Entrance Road into Sunset Crater for Scenarios

This one too.

Today’s another big day that I’ve been nervous about ever since orientation day, scenario day.  We were told on the first day of class that we’d be visiting a local national park for a full day of scenarios and that we’d be questioned in court about one of the scenarios the following week.  I immediately pictured tackling role playing suspects on the edge of a cliff, handcuffing them, searching them, reading them their Miranda rights, and escorting them to a patrol vehicle.  I found out today that this was not the case.

The park was very close to our house which was pretty cool.  It was a very cold morning and I felt like I couldn’t get warm out there at all.  There are mountains around the park but we were in a forest…so no tackling suspects on cliff edges today.  The class all gathered together & I started singing Happy Birthday to Owen, what a way to celebrate right?  We were waiting for everybody to meet up in the parking lot but were distracted by the ranger that was yelling at the FedEx driver as he was driving away…we soon saw why.  The truck passed us and we could see that the back of the truck was full of boxes…we could see that because the driver FORGOT TO SHUT THE DOOR!  We joined in with the shouting to get the driver’s attention, Travis took it one step further.  He gave chase to the truck, waving his arms in a jumping jack motion, and actually caught up to the truck..he looked like T1000 straight out of Terminator 2.  The driver saw him and stopped, and Travis shut the door for him.  That’s why he’s the president.

Couldn't find the Youtube video of T1000 chasing down the car so you'll just have to trust me. 

We were broken up into 6 groups for the 6 scenarios; it was Nick, Turiya, Texas, & me in my group, the 6^th group.  For the first portion of the day, the class was split in half to learn about criminalistics.  One half had to measure & sketch a crime scene while the other half learned how to dust for, extract, and store fingerprints…then we switched.  Pretty cool stuff, despite it being in the 20s and windy outside.  Then it was go time. Bring on the scenarios.  Without going into too much detail, these scenarios are designed for us to mess up and learn from our mistakes.  It’s the first time we’ve done anything like any of this.  Our scenario that’s going to court was a vandalism case.  Nick & Turiya drew the role of officers and Texas & I handled the evidence/ CSI stuff.  As previously mentioned, we messed up and were stopped midway through the time slot for the scenario which cut into our interviewing & evidence gathering.  When it was time to rotate from our first scenario we had to run all the way across the grounds to get to the first scenario, our PT for the day.  We did half of the scenarios before lunch and finished up afterwards.  In our scenario right before lunch, our instructor role player basically said I came across as a dick when I was interviewing him when all was said & done.  ME!?!?! A DICK!?!?! I never thought I’d hear those words.  He said it wasn’t bad but we’re supposed to be nice to everybody, especially since he was the victim that called in the break-in we were responding to.  There was another player in the scenario that I was actually very nice to and he was the drunken suspect.  He complimented me on my small talk with him at the end of the scenario, about 2 minutes after the other guy called me a dick….hmmmmmmmm.

Lunch was good; some of us ordered some pizzas which was a great idea on such a chilly day.  Despite the crappy cell service I got an e-mail from my dad saying HE GOT A JOB!!!! WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  He’d been plugging away for a long time so it’s great to see that it finally paid off. We got to talk to some of our role players during lunch and some of them actually went through this program recently, so it was cool to pick their brains.

Our next scenario was our loudest one so I was curious to see what it was all about.  It was a tricky one because we don’t know all the rules & laws yet and this instructor also told me I had to be nicer during the initial contact but he liked how I carried myself throughout the rest of it.  Next we had our intimidating instructor overseeing us work our way through the one situation I’m most nervous about in a law enforcement setting…a vehicle stop.  We were split into 2s and I thought Texas & I handled things fairly well…not bad for a couple of first timers.  Of course our actions got picked apart and I actually fought to defend them but whatever.  Our last scenario was our best one as far as developing a rapport & interviewing goes.  Way to finish the day! 

We got home & I was beat….and beet red.  Apparently you still get sunburn in freezing temperatures.  I knew that, I just didn’t plan for it.  The night was met with turmoil.  More than 1 student posted on their Facebook pages that national parks may be shut down if this Federal Government budget bill thing isn’t passed.  I read one of the articles they shared and saw that this sort of thing has happened before and that if this budget deal isn’t passed then national parks are among the first to be shut down.  GREAT!  I put a lot at risk to come out here & do this and it looks like I might be screwed!  This could explain why I haven’t heard back from anymore of these parks.  I vented about this to Laura but I remained positive.  There’s a chance I could go the NJ State Park route while this all gets figured out and there other Federal Law Enforcement agencies that won’t be affected by this whole thing so I could look to do that with this training.  There’s some bad news in there but I’m putting a positive spin on it. 

We got some good news tonight as well.  The park that we’ve been trying to track down for our group project for weeks finally got back to us and said we could visit them on Saturday.  Good News.  It’s nearly a 5 hour drive…Bad News.  It’s close to Vegas and I got a comp’d room for Friday Night. Good News. We’re supposed to get snow dumped on us again so we can’t go back to Vegas afterwards for fear that we’ll get stuck there. Bad News (or is it?)

T.G.I.V.F.

Thank God It’s Vegas Friday

What was supposed to be 12 straight days on is finally at its conclusion.  We got PT this morning and the syllabus doesn’t have us doing anything too crazy, then class, then the hike down to Vegas.  PT wasn’t too bad, minus Nick showing the same symptoms I had before getting crazy sick.  He couldn’t make it through warm-ups without terrible breathing difficulties and another girl said she was feeling the same way I did when it all started with me…shivering and hot & cold sweats.  Stay away from me you two.  I was actually pumped for today’s PT class because we were doing vertical jump testing.  I used to be able to leap like a gazelle and at times I show I still got some of it, so I was excited to see where I stood after all of this weight gain I’ve amassed through the years.  Remember earlier when I said that the squats would help Stan & I? Well this was the test.  

Saw this heading into PT. NAU Parking Services doesn't play around!

 Stan, if you remember, is super skinny, super flexible, super fast, and can run for super long.  I’ve said a few times that if you morphed us together you would probably have the most dominant student in the class. Any poo, Stan can apparently jump a little bit too.  He cleared a 20” vertical.  I think 1 other student hit that mark and one a little bit higher than it.  I fell JUST below it but I think I put my little tape sticker on the wall on my way down, not at the height of my jump.  It was sort of depressing to see because I was in the 30s when I was younger but it was awesome to see that I was among the highest considering I’m the heaviest in the class.  Some of the class cheers & comments made me feel good as well as some of them seemed impressed.  After we jumped we were told to go lift but to come back when there was 20 minutes left in the class…CRAP!  That could only mean bad things…more ass kicking was in store for us. 

My strength has definitely gone up, I was repp’n out the most weight I ever have on the bench and I felt like I could do more…until I did more and could only pump out 3 reps.  It’s strange what a difference lifting with a spotter makes.  We did a few more exercises and then met up with the class on the tennis courts for some dynamic workouts.  Five 5 second hold squat jumps, 30 plank butt kickers, pushups where you go down to about 2 inches from the ground hold for 5 seconds and then push up, 30 more plank butt kickers, V sit-ups (legs up in the air at like a 45 degree angle then u crunch up), then 30 more plank butt kickers.  That’s 1 round, we did 3.  I was hurting, sweating my ass off, and we didn’t even run.  All of that was harder to do after benching the most I ever have, but I made sure I went over and gave Mike a pound and told him that that was awesome.  My core muscles suck and that sort of crap helped them out.

When we were home I scrambled to pack a bag for Vegas, showered, got dressed for class, and ate…all in like 20 minutes.  This transition sucks so bad.  Today’s instructor was the same one we had for our vandalism scenario.  He’s mad cool.  We expanded our fingerprinting knowledge by learning how to do them as if we were booking a suspect...it was fairly cool.  We learned another way to get fingerprints off of evidence but I don’t think we’ll ever use it as park rangers…but I could be wrong.  During one of the breaks one of the students said he just got his first referral for a park.  When we came back after the break I saw his neighbor left his e-mail opened and saw that he heard back from a park as well, even though it wasn’t good news.  My faithful followers know that this is what I’ve been looking for every day for the past 6 weeks.  Some people have been getting interviews, these two got letters, one got a referral which meant he’d be getting an interview and I’ve still yet to hear anything.  I turned my phone on during the next break and told Laura what I discovered.  Two more students heard back from a park.  Immediately after I sent that to her I checked my e-mail on the phone; apparently e-mail notifications don’t come up when you turn your phone back on.  I opened my account and saw that I received letters from 2 parks. I immediately wrote right back to Laura. One of them was from the Flagstaff park I applied to and the other one was about 2 hours from home, the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.  This whole process is hard to understand and even harder to explain but I was ruled ineligible for my self-assessment for the Flagstaff park, the other students that got letters said they got the same thing, but for the Delaware Water Gap I scored a 94 on my assessment…it’s the same assessment and these fine folks wanted to interview me.  The other guy that got referred to another park scored an 85 on his assessment and he landed an interview. I don’t get it but I was certainly pumped for the rest of class and it was hard to pay attention. 

We learned about another means of getting evidence called casting.  We got to go outside and practice which again was cool but it was very cold.  I couldn’t wait to get out of class and tell my family the news.  I sent them a mass text but I had no answers to their follow up questions until I was able to break out my computer and look everything up.  I reached out to them while I waited for Nick & Arkansas in my car so we could get a jump on our trip.  Nick advised Arkansas that she should bring her car home so she doesn’t get stuck at campus, which meant that we had to drive all the way back across town at the worst time of day to pick her up and then come all the way back to pick up the highway.  That kind of blew but it’s the safest thing to do I guess. 

Vegas Bound

Wendy’s should hire this dude in my class, Alex, because he was drinking from a Wendy’s cup in class & it made all 3 of us want to stop there for dinner before hitting the road.  I ate like a champ.  The Wendy’s shared a space with the little C-store at the gas station we were at. After I ordered my food, I stopped in there for an Amp because who knew what this night would bring.  They were priced higher than I remember them being in NJ.  I guess the pin cushioned face goth girl like me because it rang up as $1.50.  As I exited the store I saw that Amps were 2 for $3.00, but I only got 1.  Go Me!  I tried shoveling my food down my gullet before the other two got outside.  I wanted to get to Vegas with the quickness and I was starving.  Got most of it down & we were on our way. 

The sunset over this scenery was indescribably beautiful.  Before long, my co-pilots were sleeping and I was left with just my music & a long dark road.  Laura called me and began the conversation with “I messed up my back at work.”  I was surprisingly calm when she told me this…what else could I do?  She has a minor case of sciatica which she said was bearable…so that’s good.  Great, my roommate has the illness I just got over and my girlfriend has the same condition that jacked me up for weeks a couple years ago and still lingers around to this day.  It’s a good thing we got food in Flagstaff because there was nothing but mountains between there & Kingman.  I was getting nervous because the gas gauge was dwindling and there was nothing that resembled a gas station in sight.  We made it to Kingman when the gas light was about to come on.  $3.41 per gallon, not bad, that’s about where it was in Flagstaff.  We filled up, the kids hit toilet, and we were back on the road. 

Me dramatically singing "Hungry Eyes" from Dirty Dancing to help pass the time haha

There was a high wind advisory at the Hoover Dam bypass bridge, that sucker moved us all over the road.  My GPS was possessed.  The screen had us off the road and driving through water.  We failed to get a picture of it.  Not too long after the Dam we began to see civilization but we still had a half hour or so until we got into town.  Then the mountains cleared and we saw one the coolest sights around, Las Vegas all lit up.  It was still hard to pick out certain places but the Stratosphere is very easily identifiable.  Arkansas seemed to appreciate the sight, I don’t remember if Nick was sleeping or not.  They both told me that this was farthest west they’d ever been.  I’ve been to Vegas before so I’d already been further than them at that point of the trip hahahahahaha.

Arkansas' poor attempt to capture the Vegas lights when we saw them haha.

We stuck to the highway parallel to “The Strip”.  We passed the first In & Out Burger I’d ever seen but have heard nothing but good things about, and we eventually made our way to the parking garage of the Rio.  Things are different in Vegas than they are in the AC casinos.  In this particular case, we had to go up in the elevator to get to the walkway for the casino, usually I travel down.  We came in on the crazy party side of the casino and it was awesome!  They have this show every hour of every night of the weekend called Party in the Sky or Show in the Sky or something.  I was too set on finding the check-in to pay attention to what was going on but there were half naked men & women dancing in these “parade floats” that run around a track on the ceiling and they throw beaded necklaces out to everybody.  Somebody failed to catch a set and they fell right behind me on the ground.  That could’ve hurt.

The best pic I could get of the Show in the Sky.  That boat is full of pretty half naked people...see it flying over the slot machines?  Pretty cool concept

Nick & I checked into our room, every room there is a suite.  Arkansas had a thing about sharing a room with guys so she had to see if they had anything available for her.  $150!  Given the short amount of time we’d be there she should’ve saved her money & slept on our couch…Nick brought a bunch of extra blankets & pillows for her.  She said she didn’t want to deal with the farting, snoring, and toilet seat issues…I thought it was just because she was old fashioned.  Ah well, no skin off my back.  If it was me, I would’ve slept in the bathtub if it meant I'd save $150. We had to walk a long hallway to our room and Nick informed me that he was running out of gas.  I wanted to show him the strip but I understood he was sick and probably very tired.  I couldn’t imagine going out in the state I was in a few weeks ago. 

We got in and I got changed.  Arkansas met us in our room and I asked Nick if he was coming. He got changed…yay!  We made our way downstairs and roamed around for a bit.  Arkansas got herself a pretzel and she ate while Nick & I watched the beginning of the next Show in the Sky.  These were some of the best looking people I’ve ever seen, guys and girls.  They reminded me the way professional wrestlers used to look at local shows I’d seen at high schools and grammar school gymnasiums.  Not their builds necessarily but the way their skin looked.  Kind of weird.  One of the dudes threw beads Arkansas’ way…she ducked hahahahahahaha.  Dude was like “what was that?”

We wandered around the casino, they had an Irish Pub that had only 2 flags outside of it, the Giants & Notre Dame.  I took a picture & sent it to Sharkey as these are his two favorite teams. The Rio is apparently home to the Chippendale dancers.  My goofball partner from Holmdel Park used to always say “What are you doing this weekend? Working your normal shift at Chippendales?” So he got a picture of the theater with the message “Do you need a ride home after you get out?”  Ahhh its fun to still be able to joke with him & the rest of that crew, I miss them. 

Outside the Irish Pub I nicknamed "Sharkey's"

hahahahahaha

 

We headed out of the casino to see that there was tornado like winds blowing around so Arkansas retreated to get her jacket.  I asked the bellhop dude how far the walk to the strip was, he said it takes about a half hour but they had free shuttles that ran every half hour…we just missed the shuttle.  We made the walk in about 15 minutes.  Working out at high elevation really paid off.  This classroom training has made me almost hypo-vigilant or something.  I’ve done this ever since my days of security work began but I was assessing every possible threatening situation as we were walking.  Out of nowhere this dude caught up to us so I made sure to keep my eyes on him, he kept his distance.  After we saw some chick get pulled over by a cop on motor cycle there were 3 bums on the side of Caesar’s and I could hear 2 of them starting to fight over who was the biggest bad ass because they spent more time in prison.  A buddy I went to high school with said he’d be in town tonight too.  I took a picture of his hotel & sent it to him, just saying hi…he’s yet to respond.

The pic I sent my buddy of where I thought he was staying.

Walking over to The Strip

As we made our way up the strip, we passed a lot more half naked girls inside casinos dancing behind the dealers at various table games.  At one point Laura texted me to see how it was going, I responded “It’s all just loud machines & half naked people without you here.”  That’s pretty sweet right? LoL.  Half naked people, drunks, and Mexican nationals handing out fliers for hookers….The Strip is GLORIOUS!  There were a few things I wanted the Vegas rookies to see but we only caught the tail end of the Mirage’s volcano show and then Nick wanted to call it a night.

Awesome..and it's outdoors & it's free!

Volcano boom boom

We made our way into Harrah’s where I tracked down a security guard to ask about the shuttle back to the Rio. He personally escorted us almost the entire way, what a guy!  There was an ornery looking couple waiting at the stop on a bench.  We sat at the next bench.  Then a group of obviously intoxicated elder folk came out to join us, acting like it was somebody’s 21^st birthday.  They jumped on line in the chute, I followed suit.  The ornery couple didn’t compute.  They felt that since they were the first ones out there that they should walk around the outside of the chute to the front of the line and cut everybody else.  Nobody said anything, I think I was the only one that noticed, but it was funny as they had very snobby looks on their faces when they did it.  The ride back was an adventure.  The drunk group was very loud, the lone lady mostly.  It was some guy’s BDay, Bob.  He looked like he just turned 60 or so and he was hugging everybody, even the driver.  His friends told him to go to the front of the bus and hug this group of ladies who looked like they were in their late 30s-early 40s and were probably a little less drunk than the other group.  Bob’s friends wanted to take a picture of him with them but they had trouble standing up.  I saw the male side of the ornery couple put his hand up to keep Bob & Co. from falling on them as the female (aka bitch) yelled at the group, “can you act like humans?!?”  Who says that?  Bob returned to his seat and the bitch continued to yell at the group of women up front.  They announced her displeasure and the obnoxious drunk lady condescendingly said “oooohhhhhh we’re soooorrrrrryyyyyy.”  I just slapped my forehead and hoped the trip would be over soon. 

Waiting for our ride

It was nearly midnight when we returned and we walked in right next to the poker room.  Evil Mini J~DuB and Good Mini J~DuB had a bit of a spat and I walked away from the room.  Nick & Arkansas went to bed and I walked around for a little bit.  I needed a Rio $1 chip to add to my collection so I sat at Let It Ride for about 10 minutes.  I think I only lost like 2 hands; I won $20, tipped the dealer $5, and cashed out. I no longer have the urge to gamble…what happened to me?  Let’s chalk it up to my maturity and the fact that we had to leave at 8am tomorrow.  I stopped by the little gift shop, I was hungry.  I got a turkey sandwich, strawberry Quick, and cocoa sorbet in one of those coconut shells…only thing is…they didn’t charge me for the sorbet.  I didn’t realize this until I looked at the receipt before bed.  Free stuff is cool…that’s two things I got hooked up with tonight. 

I watched some of this rectangular-squarish thing…I think some people call it a television.  Don’t you hate when you’re watching something then it goes to commercial and the commercial is so much louder than the program? Me too!  It happened and it woke up Nick, even though he said he wasn’t sleeping.  I crashed on top of all the sheets and pillows sideways...it was pretty funny.

Rain in the Desert

Woke up, accidentally called Laura while turning off my alarm, showered, got back into my uniform and waited for Nick to do the same.  Arkansas was waiting downstairs for us and we made our way out of the casino.  It sucked a big one that we had to leave after such a short stay but Lake Mead was calling.  We had some excitement upon departure.  There was a pretty bad car accident just across from Rio’s entrance and the cops were giving one of the drivers a field sobriety test.  COOL! 

The turn we had to make for our group project was a little over an hour away from Vegas and was just off the main highway we took into town.  However, once making the turn we had to drive about 30 miles to get to the ranger station for out little interview.  The road went on forever but we did see something cool along the way.  There are wild cattle everywhere outside of town, they’re like Arizona’s deer…even though they have deer & elk as well.  Well I could see there was a cow just next to the road, only a few feet away from us.  Unfortunately there was a pickup truck coming from the other direction and they slowed down dramatically next to the cow.  The cow frolicked away like a puppy just learning to run.  The truck passed and we stopped where the cow was; two of them were staring back at us but I failed to take a picture since we were running late already. 

Our 4^th group member met up with us and we proceeded in to talk with the only person at Lake Mead that would answer our calls & e-mails; Ranger E. Roper.  She graduated NAU’s program in 2009 so I guess that’s why she made the effort to meet with us.  She was a petite thing so I think that made Arkansas feel better about her chances at landing a job after all is said and done.  I don’t know if it’s her height, the fact that she’s a woman wearing a similar uniform to what I used to wear, or a combination of the two but Ranger Roper reminded me of the female ranger I used to work with.  Even more so when she had to be driven around by her partner, a guy my size; the only difference is she had to be driven around because she was on light duty; my old partner had to be because she needed to play with her phone while we were working/driving.  Here’s a fun fact.  Ranger Roper is from just outside Chicago and her partner is from Summit, NJ. Lake Mead has their very own version of Jerzinois! 

Lake Mead's version of Jerzinois

It was extremely gray and windy. It started raining when we arrived at the ranger station so I was more than happy to conduct the interview indoors.  Lake Mead has a no ride-a-long policy, so that blows.  We did get to go down to the marina and walk around their boats so that was cool.  Both rangers were very helpful, easy to talk to, and encouraging in pursuing this as a career.  None of us had eaten yet so we stopped at the little diner they had along the water.  It was different to say the least.  Turkey Club for J~DuB, some wings & zucchini sticks for the table and we were out.  I dropped John off at his car and we headed home to beat this snow but not before taking some pictures.  John stayed and he called us later to tell us that he got a boat ride out of the deal.  Lucky!

We made it back to Kingman but this time we were in a town part, not a rest stop.  I should’ve kept going a few miles.  I passed the expensive Chevron station that boasted gas prices of $3.69 a gallon and opted for the Shell station right next to it.  They didn’t have a big sign with their prices but on top of the pump it said $3.59.  Deal.  That was until I said I was paying with my debit card and I was charged $3.69 anyway. FML.  To make matters worse, I was out pumping the gas and the awning/roof was providing no cover from the pouring rain.  The kids went to the bathroom but this time I went too.  I was exhausted, didn’t want to drive anymore, and we had something like 2 hours left to go.  We started back on our way and passed the $3.41per gallon gas station at the rest stop from last night about a mile down the road. DAMN IT!

En route to Flagstaff we hit patches of snow fall.  We passed several big semi-trucks with their hazards on and got passed by about 7-8 Dodge Chargers both to and from Vegas.  I could pick them out by their headlights on the way down.  Hmmm…maybe this is a sign that I should get a Charger instead of the 4Runner…naaaahhhh.  The kids fell asleep again but this time I took pictures hahaha.  We made it back to town, dropped Arkansas off at which point I ran to the fence and played with her barking dogs Benjamin & Katie, and we were finally on our way home.  It was roughly 5 hours each way, a little bit longer on the way home thanks to the long as entrance to Lake Mead. I was pooped and ready for sleep.

When I woke up I researched Delaware Water Gap some more and found out they have one of my favorite things in nature…a waterfall!!!  Dingman Falls to be exact.  This is one of the better paying seasonal jobs, I’d make more than I was at Holmdel, and the park borders NJ & PA.  It’s about a 2hour drive and there may be housing available so I hope I’m able to land this bad boy.   I spent the rest of the night tending to some business on the home front and caught some shut eye as I watched more of this snow fall on Flagstaff.

Dingman Falls...gee I hope I get it, I hope I get it.

So cool looking

Maintenance Day Sunday

I haven’t done much today except fill you guys in on my last couple of days.  We got maybe a foot of snow, as the word on Facebook goes, but it doesn’t look to be that bad.  It has since stopped snowing and it looks beautiful out.  What better way to celebrate my 8 week anniversary?   

Laura & I Skype'd for the first time today.  It was the first time we've seen each other in 8 weeks! Gosh she looked more beautiful than ever. :) 

I opted to attend our optional D-Tac practice...nobody goes to them anymore...I wish I didn't.  While fighting off Travis I re-injured my back.  It's so painful.  The other 7 of us that were there stopped everything they were doing and watched me writhe in pain.  I kept telling them to take advantage of the time we had but they wanted to make sure I was ok.  Two of my classmates were EMTs so they were able to help me out as best as they could.  They held heat & ice packs on my back while everybody sat around and watched.  Using my brain, I had one of the girls interview Travis about what happened.  We got some interviewing work in. 

Back hurts, need bed

Stay classy Triple F fans.

Goodnight

 Flagstaff Observations

Can you hear me now? I’ve been to 3 national parks since coming out here and I haven’t had reliable cell phone service at a single one of them.  This is where I want to work?

Shaken Confidence We've heard from all kinds of rangers that are in the places I want to be, some of them say this is the best job out there but more often than that I hear the same gripes and grumblings that drove me away from the Monmouth County Park System.  I guess you'll find this at any job you'll work...but it's almost the same exact gripes.  Sheesh. 

Oh Matrix I've had the J~DuB Mobile for almost 9 years now.  We've had a lot of fun together. You were responsible for bringing home the apple of my eye, Indy, when she was just 9 weeks old. We've now seen 3 national parks together, including the Grand Canyon. We've ventured around the Hoover Dam & you even got to see Vegas.  We've had countless trips to Atlantic City, the Jersey Shore, concerts, and multiple commutes to & from college together. You were the one responsible for making sure I made it to multiple job interviews and weddings on time and you didn't laugh as I practiced my "unique New York"s or "how now brown cows" in your mirror prior to presenting myself to these potential employers. I'll never forget our trips to the Baltimore Harbor, Great Adventure, or Giants and Yankee Stadiums. I have no idea all of the wonderful places you got to see while being shipped out here to Flagstaff but somewhere along the way you lost your front license plate and cracked one of your fog lights. (D-Bags). I bet murdering that giant deer 2 weeks before you left for that journey probably wasn't fun.

You were broken into and robbed of almost all of your wonderful toys and still have the scars to prove it. You were damaged the first night I owned you before I even got to take you for a spin because somebody didn't realize how low your ground clearance really was. You had a booming sound system and some tricked out taillights, now I have to punch you to make the passenger headlight come on and some of the interior lights as well. Who knows if I'll ever get that parking sticker from my sophomore year at Stockton off of your backside. I had no choice but to replace all 4 of your tires in a 3 week span due to some crazy road conditions and who could forget the infamous being pulled over and towed away for no real reason incident. I rag on you a lot J~DuB Mobile but you've truly been a hell of a sidekick.  You were the first car I ever owned on my own and I'll never forget you.  Now please find some way to get the folks at Toyota to love you as much as I did so they'll give me a buttload of a trade in value for you so I can purchase your much bigger brother, the 4Runner. Thank you.

Vegas is Better Than AC It’s true people.  AC doesn’t really have a lot going for it anymore except that I can drive down there and back 2.5 times in the time it takes me to drive to Vegas from here.  I’ve never gotten a free, or even a steeply discounted room, on a weekend in AC before.  I had 4 reasonable offers for a room at some elite casinos out here for this brief stay, of course I opted for the free one.  Self parking in every Vegas casino is free.  For all of you drinkers, you can walk around the streets and drink…hell they even have frozen margarita vendors on the sidewalk.  Sports betters, yep they got that here.  The climate is typically better too.  Vegas is better than NJ period in the fact that there’s no taxes out there.   Okay I’m done.

MOUNT UP!!!

Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork

23 Softballs

Yesterday was the first day 100%, or as close to 100% as possible, so I seriously contemplated staying in bed and skipping my doctor’s appointment.  If I didn’t have to get this insurance crap figured out I totally would’ve.  I was up around 6:30 and I was afraid to look outside after this snowy ass weekend.  The coast was clear, so was the parking lot at the doctor’s office which was a big shocker considering how zoo-like it was the past two times I went there.  Knowing my luck I figured the place was closed for President’s Day and they forgot to inform me once again.  I saw a dude checking in so I parked my car…the only car in the lot…just seemed weird.  Walked to the check-in and this dirty hippy lady jumped out of her chair to reserve her spot in line.  I checked in, got my insurance squared away, heard all about the receptionist’s sinus surgery, and made my way to the waiting room.  As soon as I sat down I was called in.  I was seen and dismissed almost as fast.  Yay! I could get a quick nap before PT!

According to our syllabus we were supposed to run for 25 minutes outside.  I was dreading doing such a thing as I can’t remember the last time I ran that long all at once and I just got over being sick so I didn’t want to risk it.  The campus was a winter wonder land so we were spared trudging around in the snow.  We got our butt kicks inside instead.  We got another day of AMRAPs (as many rounds as possible in case you forgot) in.  One round included 15 step-ups (for each leg) onto a bench that was about mid thigh high on me, 15 sit-ups, 15 push-ups where you keep your core tight but lower your body onto the ground pick your hands up off of the ground then launch yourself up so hard that your hands come off the ground, then do lunges across the tennis court and back, and finally you jog a lap around the two tennis courts.  We kept our 25 minute time frame, so we had to see how many rounds we could do in 25 minutes.  I think I did 5.  At one point, Mike critiqued my form on 1 of the exercises and said doing this exercise will help with the bench press when I lose weight.  I’d been putting off telling him even though I know he thinks I’ve been dogging it with this bronchitis crap, but I finally told him that I dropped 23 pounds since January 2^nd.  He was shocked, clapped, and had a look on his face like I was a project of his that succeeded or something; I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I dropped almost 18lbs on my own before we even started with the PT portion of the program.  “You lost 23 softballs off of your body.”  His reaction gave me a second wind and it helped refocus me during the exercise.  When I was gassed and dragging ass, Arkansas ran by me and said something along the lines of “do it for Indy”, and that gave me a 3^rd wind.

 I’m sure I’ve mentioned this kid’s ego before but Mike certainly put it out there for all the class to see during a mini lecture. We were circled up and he announced that he wanted to go against the syllabus again and skip doing arms so that we could focus on more PEB suitable exercises which meant working on the bench press.  Most of us bench just about every day so the decision was met with some grumbles.  He asked the class why they wanted to do arms and I think someone said something about looking good.  Mike responded with something along the lines of 6-pack abs make you look better than big arms and he boasted that he had 5% body fat as he rubbed his stomach.  Travis & I looked across the group at each other with “I’m so tired of hearing this crap” looks on our faces so Travis stepped up to the plate first.  “Your head is like this big right now.” Mike laughed it off and said no probably bigger.  I chimed in immediately with “We got a Situation here.”  He laughed with the rest of the class and fired back with “Okay Snooki”.  “C’mon at least give me JWoww.”  Ahhhhh Jersey Shore references.  We practiced stretching for our sit & reach then had like 10 minutes to lift and we were out the door. Several of my classmates have come up to me since then saying that we should totally start calling him The Situation…hahahahahaha. 

We Got a Situation

Class was alright.  We got some of our test grades back.  I got a 98 on our crazy essay test I told ya’ll about awhile back and I got a 96 on our firearms test.  Woo Hoo!  We have an all day scenario based outing on Thursday so we were given an introduction to that and every class this week will be dedicated to preparing us for it.  We’re going to be arresting, interviewing, and interrogating suspects, victims, & witnesses, writing a report on one of the scenarios, and then having our cases go to mock trial in an actual court where we’ll be ripped apart my defense attorneys.  JOY! This is actually one of my fears of becoming a law enforcement officer, this court room stuff.  It’s only a learning experience so it won’t be that bad. 

I was pretty pumped up after doing these AMRAPs and I was acting as if I took my annoying pills today (as Maureen would say).  I was in such a good mood and apparently when that happens I get very loud.  It was a different story heading to class, as Nick & I caught every red light along the way.  I belted out a very loud “What the F_ _ K!?!?!” and I’m pretty sure that scared the tar out of Nick.  When we were home after class he told me he can never tell if I’m seriously mad or just joking around.  I was extremely pissed when we caught that particular light but I laughed about it after the light turned green; mostly because of Nick’s reaction to it.  I told him I hardly ever get mad and if I do I get over it right away.  I had chicken fingers & a baked potato…both were delicious.  I tidied up my room while he ran out to the store.  He came back with Arkansas & ice cream.  I didn’t want to be accused of being antisocial so I kicked it with them for a bit.  Then I decided to annoy them for awhile.

In class, Arkansas’ computer crashed while we were practicing a report and she let out a concerned “Oh No!” and the whole class looked up at her.  After I saw she was okay I did my best Bruce Tobi (Family Guy) impression from the back of the room….”Ooohhh Noooo”.  Some of the class started echoing it and we were all laughing.  I made sure she didn’t forget it by repeating it 20410 times when she was over. I kept up with my annoying ways by making up my patented songs about anything and everything I saw and then headed into my room for some more Heavy Rain. When I started up with the game Nick summoned me to his room and I could hear uproarious laughter. I came into the room and Arkansas was at the computer and Nick was dying laughing on his bed.  I looked at the screen and she was looking through the pictures I gave to Nick, this particular one was a chalkboard message I posted a long time ago.  My favorite prank on Nick so far. “Eye am sofa king we Todd did.”  Read it out loud.  Well here’s what happened. 

Back to Heavy Rain I beat it!  That game is pretty bad ass but I wouldn’t let any young children play it.  It plays out like a psychological mind bender movie, and since it’s on PS3 it actually looks like a movie, but it’s pretty intense.  You have to make one of the main characters cut off their finger and at one point you control the beginning of a sex scene...and yes there is naughty nudity. 

Playing video games was a good relaxer for my brain but before I went to sleep I got back to business.  I applied to three more jobs and I decided I’m heading to class early to ask our director why she thought that I’ve only heard back from one ever since I got out here and there were parks I applied to before that one that did get back to me. I don't know if the whole "no news is good news" applies here, I just want to hear something.  Some of the students are getting notices back that they are ineligible or "not referred" while 2 others had phone interviews this week. What gives?

Thank goodness we’re off in the morning.

Goodnight. 

  Good News Tuesday

I created this holiday while I was working at Holmdel Park.  I used to look at my Facebook “News Feed” or text messages and include any good news I read in my own status, I just never had any good news of my own to report…that was until I received the phone call that a spot opened in this park ranger course and they wanted me to fill it.  It’s been awhile since I honored Good News Tuesday, but having the morning off every Tuesday is very good news.  Today started off with some bad…errrr…creepy news.

I wanted to wake up around 9am and get a good workout in at the Plex before class today.  Sleep was too nice to me so I slept a little longer…that was until I heard a young girl’s voice loudly whisper “Jeff” and it sounded like she was right next to me.  I jolted awake, my door was closed so I jumped out of bed, and there was nobody home.  I was home by myself!  Looks like the ghost from my house may have followed me out here. 

I got ready for the gym but I needed to get gas and stop at the store real quick before heading over.  It took longer than expected and I was contemplating skipping the gym.  While I was running my errands Laura texted me and told me her friend asked her to be her baby’s godmother!  Happy Good News Tuesday to her! She’s very excited and honored. I decided to go to the gym but I knew I was going to be pressed for time. I wanted to go running but my legs were murdered after yesterday’s AMRAPs.  I wanted to do biceps & triceps since I haven’t done them in over two weeks. Due to the time constraints I decided I was going to stretch out my legs in the hot tub, just as I was about to leave the locker room, so I checked to see if anybody was in the hot tub, headed back into the locker room and changed into my boardshorts. 

I headed to the pool area and almost walked into a big white hexagon shaped dry erase board that said the hot tub was closed until 1pm for cleaning.  I apparently looked right past it when checking the occupancy of the hot tub.  There were some kids with their grandpa in the kiddie pool, but that was it.  I asked the lifeguard if the pool was open, it was, SCORE!  The pool is usually crawling with people so I was stoked to get a bunch of laps in.  Some crazy haired guy started talking to me.  He greeted me with a “howdy” when I finished one of my down & backs and started whining about the “spa” being closed.  Needless to say I swam a lap down and never came back hahaha.  I went over to the lazy river and ran/walked some laps against the current, that was tough, then I exited the pool by the waterslide rules sign.  I’m not too big to ride it!  Happy Good News Tuesday to me!  I showered and headed out the door, just under an hour until 1230…when Nick & I usually leave for class…so I stopped at Sonic and got a protein packed double hamburger on wheat with a Diet Dr. Pepper….and a corndog hahaha.  The burger was BANGING!

When I got home Nick was making lunch but he had a hunch I stopped at Sonic, I’ve been craving it for a few days now and when I heard that our firearms instructor AND 5% body fat PT instructor ate it this weekend, I caved in.  I changed into my uniform and headed right back out the door.  Kathy told me I could come early and see what I got wrong on my essay test and I wanted to ask her opinion one why I haven’t been hearing back from these jobs.  I asked her if she thought it was a good problem or bad problem, she simply advised me to call the hiring agency that all of these applications go through.

Today was another class with one of our core instructors who is notorious for picking on any and everybody for answers.  I had a feeling we would be back in the groups we were in the last time we had him and my group left off last time so I figured I’d be in the clear.  Wrong.  He started with our group and one of our groupmates had to go home for a home repair, so there was less room to hide.  Last time we met up this way I was fortunate enough not to have been picked on, this time I jumped right into the lion’s den.  He asked me a question and I looked up at the ceiling as if I was looking up there for the answers…he called me out on it and had the class laughing at me.  It was fun.  Half of the class signed up for a dodge ball tournament a few weeks ago, it was going down tonight.  They signed up when I was sick, and honestly I wasn’t risking injury…I’m surprised my back has held up so well this long, but they were asking everybody to come out and cheer…you know I was all about that!

After class I dropped Travis off and headed home, talking to Laura along the way.  I walked in and I saw two cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other on the living room table and the top one was addressed to Nick!  I examined the box closer and the return address from the Hoops back in Freehold!  Mama Hoop taking care of a stranger just like she would us Ward kids!  She’s the best! Happy Good News Tuesday to Nick!  The other package was for me, naturally.  The packages were next to a card looking envelope addressed to me.  Laura sent me mail!  She wrote out a very sweet card and gave me an iTunes giftcard!!! Wooo Hoooo!!!!  The package was stuffed with Mama Cookies, Reese’s Pieces, and Walmart gift card! Happy Good News Tuesday to Me!!!  I shared some Mama Cookies with Jane, got changed, and then headed back to the Aquaplex for round 2.  I was determined to get a good workout in.  Before heading out, the neighbor’s dogs came out to say hello and wish me a good workout so I replied with a side scratch/pet thing. 

Yay Packages!

It's catching on!

I think his name is Jasper.  He's rarely outside but when he is, he comes over to me, whimpers a little bit, I put my hand to the fence, he licks it then turns to the side so I can scratch him. The End.

Today was the busiest I’ve ever seen the weight room at The Plex which is why I usually wait a few hours to go there after class.  I weighed in at the doctor’s office yesterday in snow covered snow boots and several layers, so naturally I was heavier than earlier recorded.  Guess what I did as soon as I got into the weight room? Yep...weighed myself.  260!  Total weight loss since January 2^nd, 25lbs roughly.  That’s what the scale says, that’s not how I feel or how I feel I look so that number means crap to me…even though I have 2 months to reach my ranger program weight goal.  Mount Up Bitch!!!  I did a hill program on the bike for 10 minutes, stretched my beat up legs, and then did a modified version of the workout our D-Tac instructor gave us…this was the last workout I did before I got sick.  20 seconds on, 10 seconds off…but this time I honored the 10 second break instead of resting longer.  Scissor kicks, flutter kicks, bicycles, those crazy pushups from the AMRAPs yesterday, mountain climbers, and then squats.  I did 3 rounds then did 10 burpees followed by jumping rope for the entire Lifeless Life song by Ill Nino.  Their jumpropes suck so I’ll have to bring my own next time. 

I had about an hour to get to the dodge ball tournament so I banged out three sets of biceps, showered, and booked it out of there.  You can’t turn left out of the main entrance of The Plex’s parking lot…which I thought was the only entrance.  I needed to turn left so this sucks.  I found another entrance on the back side of the lot that actually took me directly where I needed to go.  I saw a cop speed down the road in front of me and then hit his lights.  He was trying to pull over a red pickup truck that appeared to be noncompliant, the cop followed him for a quarter mile or so and the dude just kept on driving.  I’ll have to try to see if something big happened on San Francisco St. tomorrow. 

The parking lots were jam packed, apparently a lot goes on there at night, so I was late for the start of the first (of 2) team’s game.  Our two teams were the Flat Hats (ranger jargon for the famous “ranger hat”) and the Purple Monkeys…which I think came from Nickelodeon’s Legends of the Hidden Temple. The tournament was single elimination; best of three games wins the match.  I arrived near the end of the first game of the Purple Monkeys’ first match, only Travis & Nick were left standing at this point…figures, Nick got knocked out as soon as I got to the sideline.  I threw off my jacket and belted “Let’s GO Travis!” Half of the gym jumped.  The Flat Hats were watching the match and started getting pumped.  Travis got knocked out and everybody got deflated.  The second game started and I was super loud.  Our two teams loved the enthusiasm and everybody joined in.  The Monkeys swept the next two games and advanced.  The Flat Hats played the rejects from the TKE fraternity, it wasn’t pretty.  They experienced the dreaded first round knockout.  A cool thing these TKE turds did after the match, they huddled up and gave a 1-2-3 Park Rangers cheer.  Excellent sportsmanship even though they were tool bags. 

The Purple Monkeys were definitely underdogs but they kept stepping up when they needed to. After each victory I gave some of the players my version of the NFL jumping chest/ hip bump.  Owen was impressed with my hops and said “Damn Jeff. You got some hops for a big guy.”  Good to know I still got it..a little bit.  While the Monkeys were regulating the competition, I introduced my patented empty hand holding the imaginary microwave while I interviewed the Flat Hats.  “This is Jeff Ward with NAU PRTP News…” hahaha. The Monkkeys made it to the Semi-finals and I cheered/”coached” them the entire time.  When the two teams lined up and were about to run for the balls to start the match, the other team, other coaches, and myself jumped up and down doing that “oooohhhhh” chant that people do at football games prior to a kickoff.  I started a “Let’s Go Rangers”, ala New York Rangers hockey, chant. We even attempted a 10 man wave…it didn’t work.  We were so wrapped up in the cheering that we started supporting people we didn’t even know.  In the semi-final matchup, the Purple Monkeys jumped out to a 1-0 lead but in the following two games, Travis eliminated himself via boundary violation and Nick fell right behind him.  They were probably the two strongest Monkeys so it was difficult for the team to persevere without them.  At the end of the 3^rd game Jake found himself battling 5 of the TKE turds by himself.  He took 1 or 2 out but then they played keep away by not throwing any balls in Jake’s direction, so he couldn’t catch them and bring some teammates back in, and the time ran out.  Apparently these ass clowns made it to the championship last year too. It’s never shameful to lose to a team with that kind of experience.

This was an excellent team building exercise.  Everybody had a blast.  Who would’ve thought a bunch of 20 somethings could have so much fun playing a kids game.

Flat Hats

Purple Monkeys

"Coaches"

My legs hurt. I’m Tired. Time for bed.  Can’t believe tomorrow’s Wednesday already.

Good Night

Mount Up!!!

Flagstaff Observation

At least no deer run out into the road.

I Left Jersey For This???

Giants & Lumberjacks...representing Freehold to Flagstaff

Wet Wintery Weekend

Just when I thought it was safe to send home some of my excess winter gear, this weekend happened.  Nick and I began getting ready for our first weekend on the range down in the warm, sunny, red rock desert-y cactus land of Sedona, Arizona by heading into Super Walmart on Friday night after our trip to Buffalo Wild Wings.  We headed in and basically shopped as if we were preparing for a class trip and I picked up an awesome cooler bag that’ll get plenty of use at Bamboozle and other events when I get home, as well two folding chairs as suggested by our instructor.  The sky was clear upon arrival at Walmart, different story when we left.  The snow was really coming down but it didn’t last very long. 

After being given the heads up about the “nightmare weather” of the weekend, there was talk about staying in a hotel room down in Sedona.  In the midst of packing I asked Nick if he thought I should just book a room, just to make sure we got some place to stay.  Good thing he talked me out of it.  I packed as if we would be staying down there anyway, posted my last blog entry, and hit the sack.

When I woke up Saturday I saw that the snow didn’t do much damage but at this point of the day it was actually SLUSHING outside.  That’s right…SLUSH was falling from the sky.  Very strange.  We packed up my awesome cooler bag and headed to pick up Travis.  I made the joke that we were the Secret Service because we were driving around the (class) president. Haha.  We met up with the rest of the class and were pessimistic about our chances of us actually going down and shooting today.  I didn’t want to get out of the car it sucked so bad outside.  The class all huddled together then our firearms instructor pulled up to us and we could see he was on the phone.  He and the program director decided to pull the plug on trekking down to Sedona and we were going to spend half of the day in a “classroom” at the Arizona Game & Fish Department office and then call it a day. 

Group of Very Disappointed Rangers Getting Slushed On.

As soon as we got into the parking lot at the office the snow started falling; big fat slow flakes.  We made a modified range around the classroom and went over some basic techniques, just killing some time.  Our instructor said the storm would worsen around noon and would get even worse overnight.  Hearing this bad news meant that no range day tomorrow either was as inevitable as Justin Bieber being reduced to only a backup dancer for Usher now that puberty is making him sound even worse than he did before.  We were cleared out the office around 11:45 and we brought Travis home, the snow stopped at this point.  Travis invited us in so we could get some lunch on and watch some TV, but I was hesitant.  I love hanging out with my boys. I’d hang with Travis any time, any day of the week, but I was wrecked!  I got crap for sleep the night before and after awhile, the morning began to slowly drag on.  I just wanted to lay down and I didn’t want to get stuck there in the storm.

We decided to hang for a little bit.  I walked in the house and the Country Boy had his country music channel on the TV.  I sat down and changed it right away hahahaha.  You may remember me mentioning his cats in a previous post, Scrappy & Killer.  Scrappy is a big fat ol’ thing that stumbles every time she jumps off of the couch, Nick calls her Black Garfield even though she’s gray.  Killer is the only domestic animal I’ve ever met that didn’t like me….I never could get those deer at Holmdel Park to come and talk to me when I was on late shift.  When I first met Killer, all she did was growl, hiss, & moan at me.  We’ve made progress since then.  She’ll come up to me, smell me, let me get a few quick pets in…then she’ll BITE me.  It’s usually just a little taste without much force behind it, but then the growling and hissing ensues.  Little bitch cat.  She even ate a tiny piece of string cheese out of my hand then bit me one minute later.  I would flip through the channels and she would sit right next to me in attack mode, staring at my hands…she’d make a good law enforcement officer haha.  While flipping through the channels I came across the NAU basketball game I wanted to go to on Wednesday night.  We watched that for a little bit and caught the end of Enemy of the State.  Forgive me for giving you such details but catching some television is a rarity so deal with it. 

The snow started falling hardcore so I really wanted to book it out of there and get home for 2 reasons.  Neither Nick or I have an ideal drive in the snow car (I’ll gladly take a donated 2010-2011 4Runner SR5 if you’re concerned for my safety J ) and if we are parked in the driveway then we’ll have less to shovel when we need to leave.  Nick appeared to share the same concern but we stayed and kept Travis company for awhile longer.  I tried chasing down the doctor’s office because they had to reschedule my appointment with the insurance people…so I called them to pass the time.  They let you know your place in “line” for your call to be taken; I had 2 people ahead of me for 20 minutes so I just hung up on them.  Nick said we’d go about a half hour ago, I never took my jacket off, and every time I looked out the window you could see less and less of Nick’s tires with all of this snow mounting up. We finally decided it was time to go which gave Travis an opportunity to take advantage of our new found time off so he could go apply to jobs in town.  He’s been trying since he got here January 2^nd.

Where's the Mountain?  Apparently that van never moves.

The roads were awful.  Nick recognized that we probably should’ve left earlier and I told him that’s why I suggested it over an hour ago.  We got to our street and his tires just spun out in the snow.  The driveway was blanketed and we were in near whiteout conditions at the base of our mountain…you couldn’t even see Mt. Elden.  He parked in front of the driveway and I ran to get the shovels, he wisely advised changing out of our uniforms then we went to work.  This is where all of those long winters at Holmdel Park paid off.  I don’t know about you folks but I find the best way to shovel a driveway is do side sweeps instead of going vertical from the house to the street.  I thank my sciatica ridden back for teaching me that little maneuver.  Trust me kids, it saves you time and your back.  We banged out the driveway but by the time we got to the bottom, the top was dusted once again.  We don’t have a very big driveway folks, this storm was nuts!  It took some effort but Nick got into the driveway and we headed inside where I found I had two picture messages from Arkansas of Benjamin playing in the snow…YAY!

Benjamin in the snow

Benjamin Semi-Covered in Snow

I caught up on my Netflix’d Spartacus, have I mentioned how much I love that show?  This season is a prequel to last season and this past episode answered just about every question I had about transitioning into last season…if that makes sense.  I was so happy to have these answers, then I was bummed to find out that there’s only 1 more episode left of the season.  A 6 episode season!?!? That’s CRAP!  I wanted to sleep so badly but I couldn’t during the day, so I caught up on one of my guilty pleasures...Jersey Shore.  I hate this show.  I hate most of the people on it, their lifestyle, and the fact they are rich just for being talentless scumbags….yet I get sucked in all the time.  If I wasn’t from Jersey I definitely wouldn’t watch it, Vinnie & Pauly D are hysterical, but other than that it’s just an awful show.  Moving on.

Nick & I shoveled the snow yet again, he was getting a bad case of cabin fever so he wanted to run to Subway.  I was going to go with him but I was whooped and I felt like doing nothing. We got him out and he was on his way while I tackled this insurance issue. I have until Wednesday to prove that I tried applying for this AZ health insurance thing or I’d be forced to cover all of the costs for my visit almost 2 weeks ago.  The website they told me to use was wrong and I already talked about trying to get in touch with them regarding my appointment.  One thing I learned as a ranger for Monmouth County is how to adapt to any situation thrown at you.  I worked some magic and found the appropriate website to handle this insurance crap.  I hope I did it right.  Now I won’t have to sit around the doctor’s office for another hour or 2 and I won’t miss another class because of it.  While completing this tedious task, I heard a familiar voice out in the living room.  A voice I haven’t heard in these walls for a long time.  It was Arkansas!  She joined Nick on his trek to Subway and they returned with a $5 footlong for me!  Aren’t they great? 

The snow fell off & on and there was no way I was driving out in it so I just kept it low key for the rest of the night.  I think at one point I fell asleep sitting up in a chair with my friend Fiona sleeping on my lap. I tried catching any updates of the NBA All Star weekend on ESPN and that brought me back to a happy place.  I wasn’t able to find any video or anything of the Slam Dunk contest yet I was still happy checking out the site.  No luck other the names of the winners on the NBA front but I found joy in seeing that the ESPN Fantasy Football page already started ranking players for next season! Call me obsessed but my obsession won me 3 Super Bowls, which in turn, covered my rent while I’m out here in Flagstaff. MOUNT UP!!!  

I still haven’t heard from any other parks and this new found computer glitch had me freaking out so I checked our job website to check my application status.  For every job we have to upload a couple of documents…resumes, transcripts, etc.. Well under the column for uploaded documents it said “none”…for EVERY job I’ve applied to.  Naturally I freaked out and sent out a mass e-mail to the class asking them, and the program director, if they knew why that was.  No wonder I haven’t heard anything back from them, I thought.  Two of my classmates immediately responded and calmed me down while I made most of the rest of them nervous that the same thing happened.  It’s a confusing story but it involved a third party website with whom we actually complete our applications.  Tragedy averted.

I watched the newest Family Guy on Hulu and I’ve gotta say, Family Guy is incredibly done.  It just looks amazing.  The last episode they added had Peter & Brian in the movie theater and they were watching The Sound of Music…the actual movie.  Peter punches the screen and falls behind it. They flipped the image on the screen around like it actually looks (or at least it did in Inglorious Basterds) from behind the screen.  Simply awesome!

Modified Day Off

 For the first time in about 3 weeks I woke up feeling 100%; feeling Unstoppable.  I believe there are 4 causes for such a feeling.  1.) I woke up to a text message from Laura that ended with the phrase…I Love You.  It’s the little things.  I made sure to tell Jane & Nick that she sent that…I’m not sure why other than the fact that it made me very happy.  2.) I was no longer feeling the effects of this bronchitis that has been absolutely wiping me out for nearly a month now. 3.) We have an unscheduled modified day off. 4.) In exactly 2 months from today I’ll be back home. 

I’ve been violently coughing my brains out & gasping for air even while at rest for quite awhile now but I woke up refreshed today.  Good thing too, I knew the driveway would need a 3^rd stint of shoveling and we had to be at the Sheriff’s office in an hour for a brief training period. Since our range day was cancelled for today we were able to move our 1 hour of firearms training that was scheduled to take place on our last day of Spring Break to today.  Good for us to be able to get something done today, bad for any of us that may have people coming out for Spring Break as we just went from having to spend an hour of that day to possibly spending at least a half day if not a full day at the range that day…but that has yet to have been determined.  This training session was basically playing a life like video game that goes way beyond anything Wii, XBOX360 Kinect, or Playstation Move are doing.  You run through a bunch of video scenarios and shoot (or don’t shoot) a Glock (gun) that’s equipped with a laser pointer. We were informed about this exercise on the first day of class and it’s something that I’ve been secretly nervous about ever since, yet I wasn’t sure why. We found out yesterday that the exercise was going to be moved to today and we got some more information about it.  The more we learned about it the more the class pictured the shooting scenario scene from Men In Back.  I’ll come back to that though.

What I Woke Up To...Trying to 1-Up Augun

Another text message I got this morning was from my boy Augun back at Holmdel Park.  Apparently the winds were so bad there over night that they blew the port-o potties all around the parking lot.  I used to hate having to fix that.  The picture had the caption “This is how my day started.”  I went outside and started shoveling then figured I’d respond to him with a picture of how my day started.  I shoveled for 45 minutes and got done just in time to get changed, grab a bagel thin, and head over to the station.  Our road was still in bad shape but I could see the road we had to take into town looked like it had been plowed so I wasn’t too worried.  I’m not sure what the term or whatever is for when you see a piece of the puzzle/picture and everything seems one way but then more is revealed and then everything is ugly but that’s basically how the rest of our journey to the sheriff’s office was.  Only the little window of the end of our street was nice and plowed with asphalt showing the rest was a wintery mess.  I don’t mind driving in the snow, I prefer not to but if I have to I don’t mind.  We were in the car for less than 2 minutes and I was irate that this little training session wasn’t cancelled.  I probably had 40-50ft of visibility, I was sloshing all over the place, and I still had to drive up hill at one point.  Yesterday I told Laura that if the streets were good enough for me to get to this training exercise then I would be going to the gym afterwards.  I drove by the gym….and the roads were in no condition to be driving to this exercise.  I followed whatever tire tracks I could to get around in the mess and the trail brought me to a red light with me near the left side of the middle lane and I had to turn right and I see this white truck coming up the turn lane to make the same right at the light; low and behold…it was a 4RUNNER!!!!!  Anybody else picking up on these signs?  I followed the older version of my dream car until I reached the road we had to turn onto, aka the path nobody seemingly has traveled.  I begin making my left turn and I instantly fishtail at a 45 degree angle instead of making the 90 degree angle turn.  I thought for sure I was going to smash into a curb or snow bank and be stuck.  Fortunately my beat up trusty old Matrix stopped its momentum and I was able to spin into the road.  “Tell me again why we didn’t cancel this today?” I asked Nick.  We found the sheriff’s office and their parking lot was hardly even touched.  J~DuB Jerzee was not happy. 

I recognized some of the cars in the lot as those belonging to some fellow classmates so I knew I didn’t miss the memo about cancelling the exercise so we walked inside.  There was an officer at a desk to greet us and he told us we could head back to the area, which was something new because we were instructed to arrive on the hour with our group of 4 and then head in.  Considering we already broke the rules by arriving so early I told him we would wait for the rest of the group. The lobby had a TV type monitor that was scrolling various announcements in a slide show.  ANY OF MY LAW ENFORCEMENT WANNABEs PAY ATTENTION. Flagstaff PD is hiring for all types of positions, officers included.  There is a catch however, I think you need to reside in Flagstaff for at least a year.  Bummer.

We waited until 11, our assigned time, and had the officer escort us back to the training room.  He mentioned that people had been staggering in earlier so maybe our other 2 group members were there…they weren’t.  I could hear loud commands from a computer describing scenarios, then yelling, and then computerized gunshots.  It sounded intense! As the group before us left, the rest of our group showed up and we headed into the training room for a briefing.  I asked the last question so I was selected to go first…which is exactly what I wanted because after you go you can stay and watch everybody else…nobody got to watch me.  We got done rather quickly so everybody got a crack at 1 extra scenario that nobody else in the group got to do, so they at least got to see me go once.

I regret to inform my family and friends that I was killed in the last scenario while foiling a bank robbery…but it was a computer/screen error, not my excellent shooting.  Please bury me in my hypothetical 4Runner…it has a lot of trunk space.

On the way home Nick uttered one of our favorite words, “lunch?”  If that word, or dinner, is used in the car by itself it usually means that we’re going to stop somewhere or make plans to go somewhere later…that wasn’t happening today.  “Yeah we’ll put something together when we get home.” I responded. We got home and guess what we see, the driveway covered with a 2.5 inch thick blanket of this cold wet white stuff.  Hmmm…how odd.  Considering I shoveled “my side” of the driveway before we left I figured I’d be okay to pull in without a problem….wrong.  I got halfway up the driveway and started drifting sideways toward Nick’s car so I stopped and parked right there….even though I owe him a sideswipe or a rearending.  We got out and went right back to work shoveling the driveway.  At least today you could see Mt. Elden, but yeah…still snowing. I shoveled enough to get my car up the rest of the way, removed what was missed from where I parked, and then headed in to start thawing some tilapia and washing some clothes. 

Winter Wonderland

It Snowed This Much in About a Day & a Half, still snowing.

Nick came in after finishing “his side” of the driveway and started up on the cooking while I priced out some training equipment for the ranger class.  I screwed around with my iTunes while Nick cooked and while we ate.  I found myself thinking a lot about going to the beach and Great Adventure with Laura today so I texted her and told her I couldn’t wait to go to the beach with her.  I haven’t been on a beach in over 3 years, I used to live there!  Nick went out for a hot chocolate, probably stir crazy at this point, and I headed to my room.  Sunday is apparently maintenance day.  I catch up with e-mails, bills, laundry, cleaning, etc.  Today I also caught up with a long lost friend…video games.  I haven’t played a video game console since New Year’s Eve, that’s pretty big for me.  Today I broke out the Heavy Rain…the game is pretty awesome.  You play 4 different characters who are trying to find one of the dude’s sons who they suspect may be the Origami Killer’s next victim.  Before getting into the game there was some update that took over a half hour to complete, which gave me a chance to send some e-mails.  The update made it so you could play the game with that Playstation Move thingie that Playstation bit off of Wii.  That’s just insane as it completely transforms the game; essentially you act as the characters instead of controlling them with a controller.  I don’t have or want this PS Move thing so I stuck with the controlled mode but I can’t believe what technology is capable of these days.

 

Jane got home and made tacos for Jim, Nick, Arkansas & I while I helped my sister compile a resume then after dinner, the 3 Double Ds watched Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade and I began working on this post.  While writing this Nick asked me copy all the pictures I have from being out here onto his flashdrive.  When I brought his flashdrive to him I opened his door and announced “here’s what the whales are saying”, which was a perfect execution of a Brian Reagan line that got wasted because he had his headphones on and was watching something on his laptop.  DAMN IT!

Brian Reagan - Whale Noises...hahahaha

Anyway, doctor early in the AM. 

Two months until I'm home!

Goodnight.

MOUNT UP!!!

Flagstaff Observation

Where’s the sand? I’m not 100% sure this is true or not but the massive snow plow trucks that handle Flagstaff’s snowy business don’t salt or sand the roads, they just leave huge piles of ice & snow at the foot of your driveway that you need a jackhammer to break up in order to move.  They have to put something down on the road but it isn’t very visible so it definitely isn’t salt or sand.  I figure with them being so close to the desert that sand would make sense…but I think that goes back to Flagstaffians hating everybody that isn’t one of them, i.e. Phoenixians.  I thought hippies loved everybody.  Then again, I bet the Park Rangers are doing a smashup job of protecting the Federally preserved sand around here.  BE UNSTOPPABLE RANGERS!