" Ahh The Good Old Days "

Ok after reading comments on other blogs I see we all have a soft spot for older cars,on a recent trip to Cape Cod Anna and I visited this museum. If it is cars you like this is a neat place to be....Note the red ski's and track on the black model T-Ford, at least I think that is a model-T.

Airport Safety????

So you want to get away from it all? You need to get away from the every day grind of work, the pressures of the economy, and just the every day aggravation of getting out of bed only to repeat what you did yesterday, is that why you need that Vacation? well that is understandable, just don't tell me I didn't warn you. As you may already know I worked at the Airport for approximately 10 yrs. so I have seen things that you just wouldn't believe when it comes to traveling by air. You see just as you think you are getting away from it all, you step into a world that makes your work related stress seem like a day in the amusement park. Your first bit of stress is your arrival at the airport departure road, when you pull to the curb the first thing you feel is that all the police officers assigned to the unit are watching you, just waiting to pounce on your vehicle the second you leave it unattended which they will if left for more than 5 minutes, now you get past the departure road and feel you've gotten away with something because you left your car for 6 minutes and it was still there unticketed. Ok you now leave the check in and are approaching the the security check point. The first thing you notice is the nice white shirts with gold badges on the TSA personnel, very professional, patting down the old ladies and going through your carry on looking for whatever it is three weeks of training trains you to find. Ahh great your now past the most stressful part of the journey, time to sit back and relax and wait for your flight number to be called. You can't wait to be in the hands of those capable aerospace aviators we call Pilots. Your flight is called you find your seat, you sit back in anticipation of feeling the Air Craft being pushed back from the gate,with engines starting up, the tugs are released and you taxi to the end of the runway, the pilot announces Clarence to depart you feel the plane lurch forward as the powerful engines wine to their full throttle-up. Yes here we go!!!!!!

Whoops

Blogger Buzz: Introducing Knol

Results

Being at a loss for words today I thought I would give you the dramatic results of Goatee or No Goatee. I must remind you all that this was a totally unscientific survey and I must warn you there is no rewards for your participation. After carefully tabulating all the votes (3 responses ) I am proud to say the Goatee Stays. I must say to my baby sister MaryAnn we live in a democratic society and in such a society the majority rules, though we don't always agree. Let me take this moment to thank all my sponsors and backer without whom this survey could not have been completed.....

The Boys

I received an e-mail the other day from a good buddy of mine, Pat, in the e-mail was lots of puppies doing what puppies do best make one smile, well what it did for me was one, made me smile which incidentally we all need to do every once in a while, and two it also gave me an idea for this blog. Puppies are a subject I know quite a bit about seeings how I worked with them for 29.5 years of my 35 years in the police department.I would Like to introduce them to you. First we have Fritz, his badge number was 253,he weighed approx.95.lbs.

Fritz and I became partners in July 1974, after fourteen weeks of intense patrol training we were assigned to the subway unit. Needless to say we were pretty active in those deep caverns of cement and steel. My most memorable moment with Fritz and what really made me a believer in K-9 effectiveness, it was while on patrol at one of the stations, I walk into a robbery in progress by point of knife, the bad guys tried to flee, I latched onto one of them and my partner Fritz grabbed one in the leg causing him to go down and then chased another up a set of steps and grabbed another, what happened next was unbelievable, the last two bad guys seeing Fritz gnawing on their accomplice friend, froze, it was a great arrest, all five were arrested, tried, and sentenced. I worked Fritz up till December of 1981, he died of old age at the age of 15, 5 years later.

My next partner was Lupo, his badge number was 367, he weighed in at approx.87 lbs. Lupo and I became partner in January 1982, we trained in patrol for fourteen weeks and again were reassigned to the subways, after about six years I decided it was about time to expand my horizons and crossed trained Lupo into Narcotics detection, we trained for another 14 weeks in the art of finding the drugs, which he did very well. His most memorable moment was we were called to the Philadelphia Airport, a call came into narcotics Hqs. from Dallas claiming a large shipment of marijuana was entering Phila. but the flight was unknown. Lupo checked numerous flights from Texas and after several hrs. indicated on 6 enormous suite cases. The results were $1,000,000 in weed and cash. The owners of the bags were snatched up as they picked up the cases in the baggage area. Lupo and I worked till January, 1993 when he developed throat cancer and had to be euthanized.

Not long after Lupo, in February of 1993 I was back in the K-9 academy training my third partner his name is Shultz Badge# 493, he also weighed in at about 90 lbs. After our patrol training I was asked if I wanted to try something different and cross train Shultz into Ordinance detection, this pretty much would land me (get the pun) at the Airport Unit and never passing up an opportunity to face new challenges I accepted. Schults developed physical and appeared mental problems not long after our being assigned to the airport,I sort of think working around all that noise on the field messed with his head a bit,he worked great when we went back to the academy for annual training but had no interest when on the job. Shultz also had health problems and met his demise 1996.He also had throat cancer.

Last but not least we have my boy Rex badge# 515. He weighed in at 98 lbs. Rex and I started training in February 1996, we immediately cross trained into Explosive detection. We returned to the airport where it was like a home away from home. Some of our responsibilities were sweeping the Presidential Motorcades, checking aircraft with bomb threats, sweeping cargo prior to loading on the aircraft's and checking suspicious devices found, also luggage unattended.Rex was a master at detection, he won numerous awards from regional competitions, I swear he could find a bullet in a ten story building.Well now you met my boys, I know this blog is quite long but my career was long and once I start talking about it I just can't stop. Oh by the way, Schults is top left, Rex is top right, Fritz is lower left and Lupo is lower right.....

Weekend Getaway

Well here it is Monday, I am well charged due to the fantastic weekend I had driving through the mountains of Pennsylvania, gas prices or no gas prices, nothing short of my demise will keep me from visiting those mountains. Anna and I decided Friday night to throw a change of cloths and a swim suit into a gym bag and just get out of this hot and humid sticky city. As we traveled up the Northeast extention of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Anna and I discussed things we might do while doing nothing in the mountains so we decided the first thing we will do is take a dip in the pool, well two things happened upon our arrival, one, all that heat and humidity I talked about earlier, it was gone, it was actually cool, and second it was after ten and take a guess when they close the pool? that's right ten o'clock! disappointing yes but after all we were in the mountains. The second thing on our to do list was go to this little town of Tomaqua where we have a realtor, it was a spur of the moment thing but we got some mls listings for some homes within 25 miles of the realtor and spent the day looking for and at those homes, none of which set off my wow factor. Anna and I have property in the mountains which is where these pictures were taken . It is a gated community with a Arnold Palmer designed golf course, and a ski resort, it is a beautiful place and we may just build a home there but in the meantime if we find the perfect place outside the resort we may just sell the resort property. No matter which way we go, I will soon have my little place in the mountains. OK now I don't want you to think this trip was all work and no play, Saturday night Anna and I finally got that dip in the pool we so looked forward to, and guess what, it was still freezing so we stayed in the pool for all of about 15 minutes and decided to go clubbing instead. It just so happens that the hotel we were staying in had a live band that night playing oldies, my kind of music so needless to say we entered, got the back of our hand stamped and just kicked back and enjoyed the rest of the evening. Well here we are back in the hot humid city all charged and ready for the next spontaneous trip to Gods country.

TGIF

TGIF, it's funny, those four little letters have such a different meaning when retired. It used to mean the weekend is here and no work for two days unless you were a Police Officer or Fire Fighter or Doctor or Nurse etc., now it means to me companionship, getting together with family and friends as they are still doing that daily grind called work. It seems to me that until they all take the plunge into this slow, layed back, almost moving in reverse pace of retirement, life will continue to be a waiting game. Waiting for Anna to get home so we can eat dinner and discuss how her day went, waiting for the Chickie's (my son and daughter) to check in and let me know how their day went, waiting to play a round of golf for those buddies with that grind I mentioned aren't available until the weekend. Ok thats all for now I must get outside and mow the south forty and get my wash done so I can get out this weekend and say TGIS.....

Goatee or no Goatee

GOATEE

Ok here's one of those major decisions a retired person must make along with what to eat for lunch, Goatee or No Goatee. After 35 years of clean shaving every day in the Police Department,and five years before that in the military resulting in rashes and razor burns just to adhere to the simple rules and regulation of those departments to keep the supervisors happy , I must make the decision on should I look like a retired cop or should I let my hair down and be a regular joe. My Anna seems to like it and most feedback from family and friends seem to be positive. I think I like it and will keep it, I will try different looks like soul patch, no soul patch, chin hair, no chin hair that I am growing as I speak...

NO Goatee

Ontario & Cape Cod

A Great Vacation

One of the great things about retirement is you can pretty much do what you want when you want to, for example, last May my wife Anna and I decided that we had never seen the Niagra Falls, it is only a 7hr. drive from home so why not? I must say it was well worth the drive. We were there for two days and did just about everything there was for a tourist to do. We sailed on the Maid of the Myst which takes you to the foot of the falls, we went into the tunnels behind the falls for a behind the falls view, and we went to the Tower where on a clear day you can see all of Ontario and some of New York. The Canadian falls better known as The Horseshoe Falls definitely has the US Falls beat by a mile. Well after we did all we could do in Ontario we headed East for Cape Cod, this was another 8 hr. trip across the state of New York. Anna and I have been there before and loved the relaxed atmosphere, we went to museums and dined out we tried to get over to the islands, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard but it stormed both days we were there and the Ferries had limited their travel hours those days, oh well maybe next time.

View of Horseshoe Falls from our hotel room

Where To Go From Here

All righty then, apparently I did something right in this place called cyber because I posted my first Blog and got a response, several as a matter of fact, one was from a buddy I had met years ago in a little town called Nha Trang, in a small country called Viet Nam. My buddy's name is Pat, we were united on this web site I just happened to stumble onto one day, it was a Viet Nam Veterans site, I was in the Air Force as a Security Policeman and I just started to browse when I seen an add to join the VSPA ( Viet Nam Security Police Assn. ) and I did. Almost as soon as I joined I started receiving e-mail from guys I haven't seen in 30 years or more, Pat being one of them.

Oh I did say I received two responses to my blog, the second wasn't actually a written response but a verbal critique of my short comings when it comes to spelling and punctuation, that critic was my beautiful and very intelligent wife, so please bear with me, it won't be long till I Blog with the best of them. Well I guess I have said a lot of nothing again, I hope in the near future to be at ease and start to write about more intelligible topics.........Harry