My Moments In This Short Life

Spring Has Sprung at least for today

2011-02-18T23:09:00.000-05:00

I awakened this morning to a somewhat gray day but the temperature was in the fifties wih a promise from the weather man that the sun will be out by noon with highs in the upper sixties and you know what, suprises of suprises she was right. My wife and I had a sad chore to run and that was a viewing for a good friend of ours mother, I didn't know her well but Anna did, I know the family well, the daughters and grand children and some of the Great Grandkids, and a great and beautiful family they are.
After we left the services we went to pick up our grandaughter from preschool, we had lunch and then by this time the sun was out and the temperature was 69, not a bad number, Ahem, sorry I couldn't resist. But anyhow it was 69 degrees and I just wasn't going to waste the day sitting in so I went to the shed and got out the hose, shovel and broom, I used the shovel to clean up the last of the snow at the end of my driveway, afterward I swept the dirt and leaves left buy the snow and finally I hosed it all down, I guess you might say I got ready for part two of this winter, the reality being as in most of the east coast winter will be back tomorrow, as a matter of fact as I sit here at 10:00p the winds of change are blowing so hard my windows and doors are shaking.
Ok lets see what else to talk about, oh yes, time has defeated me, let me explain, as of a month ago I started a new career, I went out and got myself a security job at a nearby hospital, I seemed to run out of things to do around the house and I think Cabin Fever was setting in, but whatever the reason I did it. Kinda feels good getting out a few days a week, the work isn't bad, the ER seems to be where most of the problems are, you get your drug addicts in looking for drugs to heal their fictitious pains and when they find out they will only get Tylenol they go off in fits of rage that's when the ole PD comes out in me. Well so much for my thoughts for today see you next time.....

I'm Back

2011-02-16T16:35:00.000-05:00

Well hopefully we seen the end of the snowy winter and I will soon be able to use that snow covered grill.They are talking sixties and seventies by the end of the week but back to winter on Saturday. We have two barometers that winter is drawing to an end, the first is that rodent named Phil who seen his shadow and second The Philadelphia Phillies Pitchers are it Florida, I just can't wait to see how that fearsome foursome do. It is definetly going to be an interesting season for Philly Phans. Well that's about it for now I'll be back again soon.....

Excuse Me

2010-01-23T17:51:00.000-05:00

Please excuse my inablility to master this Posting of my blogs for I still after all this time have difficulty in setting the pictures with the blog itself, maybe by the next century I will master it, but anyhow here is the Third Medal Dad my Hero received. As I said it is the Distinguished Flying Cross

Hero's Medals

2010-01-23T17:39:00.000-05:00

For his unselfish service, courage, and dedication to God and his Country my Hero received many awards but these three I worship as though they were mine.Top Left The Distinguished Flying Cross, Top Right The Air Medal, and the Lower Center the very recognizable Purple Heart...

These are the Pictures of the resting place of my Hero's plane "The Bad Penny", on it's approach to runway at their base The Bad Penny hit a clump of trees due to the extensive flack damage caused while on a bombing run into France..Notice the Tail cleared the rest of the deb re. The picture on the Left shows the skid path of The Bad Penny....

My Hero

2010-01-23T17:01:00.000-05:00

Here it is a lazy Saturday afternoon, my mind is wandering for a topic to blog about, I could rant about the economy and how our President (and I use that term lightly) is single handily destroying this countries economy and my what I thought was a great retirement nest egg. Just this past week he opened his mouth about how he was going to further hand cuff the banks and big businesses with Government takeovers and as soon as he opened his mouth the DOW lost over 2% of it's earnings even before his speech was finished,and then loose again triple digit loses in the next two sessions, thank the good Lord for Weekends and the Market is closed.

As I was saying I could rant about this unfortunate administration but something more near and dear to my heart came to mind, my true hero DAD. Dad is 92 and very much a Hero. Born and raised in the little town of Frackville Pa. a small mining town in Carbon County, dad was one of 3 brothers Harry, John and Louis, dad was a football and Basketball player in High School and graduated form Frackville High after which he sort of got bogged down going to dead end jobs with no future, the war broke out in Europe and with this my hero decided to enlist so on September 12th 1939 my hero was sworn into the Army Air Corp. My Hero did not see a lot of action his first couple years for the United States was not fully involved in the war at that time so my Hero went from Tech School to Tech School learning the trade that would be his responsibility once he was involved in the fighting and that trade was Tail Gunner and Turret Gunner on a B-26 Marauder.I sat down many times to talk to my hero about the war and his part in it and guess what he said I am not the hero ,the ones that never returned were the True Hero's. Typical huh. My Hero Flew into the jaws of hell 64 times,each time being peppered by flack and anti aircraft fire then as they were leaving the encountered the German Lufafa, my Hero would sit on the edge of his seat as if he were flying a mission all over again, he tried to explain to me what it was like trying to shoot down one of those German planes, how if you flipped a dime into the air and watch it pass your eyes, that is about how much time you had to aim and fire. My Hero was flying on about his forty something mission when they encounter lots of body damage to the plane and their hydraulics were hit and if you know anything about hydraulics when they go you can't lower landing gears, the airplanes flaps are inoperative in other words the planes life blood is spewing and you are in a world of hurt. My Hero recalls that day as if it were yesterday, the Marauder also affectionetly called The Bad Penny was limping on approach to a field in England when disaster struck, The Bad Penny hit some trees and broke apart as you can see in the pictures, five of the seven crew were killed one severly injured my Hero was in the tail and was thrown tail and all away from the rest of the reckage,banged up and dazed my Hero survived to fly another day, and that he did he completed a total of 64 missions on board "Thumbs Up"

Television Ads

2010-01-15T17:25:00.000-05:00

Sean Hannity Bill O'Reilly

NEWS

Last night I was sitting at home watching a lot of nothing on TV waiting for my main men Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity two men I found to be able to eloquently express views many of them the same as mine but when it comes to politics only a lot better than I could ever. They come on starting at 8:00 pm here in the east and then again at 11:00 pm, I watch them at 11:00 because the house is so much more quiet, the granddaughter is in bed so are my son and future daughter in law, Anna is asleep on the couch opposite me with her feet over my lap getting there daily massage, that is a nightly ritual that keeps the honeymoon going, but that's another story, my rant today is why do the local news channels feel it is necessary to scroll news across the bottom of the screen, the same news that was just told by the anchorman or will be told before the newscast is finished? Personally I find it very annoying, now don't get me wrong I am not a dumb guy, I can walk and chew gum at the same time, is it they try to cram as much violence, crime and failing politics as they can in as little time as they can, people are not depressed enough they have to fan the flames.

PRIME TIME
Another rant I have is those annoying ads of upcoming programming. Why do they insist on blocking the program that is on to advertise what will be on usually a week or so. They don't have enough time between station breaks to announce what's coming up. I am not talking about the station logo that sits in the corner, usually the left corner of the screen they are annoying but I can handle them I mean the ones that pop up from no where in full motion flashing flashlights and peeking at you from behind the program they are sponsoring, one night I was watching a war movie,can' recall the name of it but it had subtitles when the Germans were speaking and low and behold there were those damn ads actually blocking the subtitles, let me tell you I was so pissed off I turned the movie off, but you know what they say it is bette to be pissed off than pissed on.

Bill O'Reilly

Seasons

2010-01-11T22:04:00.000-05:00

I am sitting here in my family room not thinking of anything in particular Anna is laying next to me chatting to a sister in Texas, it occured to me how fast seasons come and go, not just the weather season but the sports season. As of this past Saturday the football season here in Philly came to an abrupt end with Dallas soundly defeating our beloved Feables aka Eagles. Now don't get me wrong I pretty much live, die and bleed Green but it is becoming a seasonal habit that the team gets the fans to a fever pitch and then tears their hearts out loosing the big one, I have no idea were the Eagles team that won the last 6 games to end the season 11 and 5 went, but then again thats the Eagles. Oh well will get them next year, or maybe not!!
Ok hear we are in the dead of winter the football season is over at least for the home team, this for me is the worst time of the year, not that it is cold and snowy, but I, not being a fan of basketball or hockey have to wait until the fighting Phils start training camp I believe is sometime in April so I guess I will have to entertain myself with those ice skateing and ski compititions "yikes."

Snow Storm Update

2009-12-21T16:03:00.004-05:00

Day three after the record breaking snow storm, the final tally was 23.2 inches in the Philadelphia area, this was the most snow ever in December for Philadelphia. Now as for the clean up I had absolutely none, you see my son and grandson were here and they did it all, wow was I ever happy and you know the other great thing about this storm? for the first time in over thirty-five years I did not have to go to work in it. It was like I died and went to heaven, no pressure on cleaning off the car, and as you can see in the above pictures I would have had a lot of cleaning to do, no pressure to leave the house early to get to work on time and most of all not having to worry about the other drivers on the highway who think they know how to drive in snow only to find out that you have to take it easy or you'll wind up bouncing off the median divider and probably bouncing back into traffic and wiping out a cautious driver like myself out.

Well it seems like I have been having a few moments each day to write what is on my mind, I hope I can stay up with it, it will be getting a bit harder the closer to Christmas for obvious reasons but I will make a real effort to complete the wealth of useless information I may have in my head on any given day at any given moment, You know( My Moments In This Short Life)......

Snowing in December

2009-12-20T15:20:00.004-05:00

Well it finally got us, our first big snow storm in December since 1909 which dumped 21 inches in the Philadelphia area, yesterdays was only 16 inches in comparisonbut as you can see it made for a great Christmas scene. You are looking at the Bevan residence all lit up for Christmas, this picture was taken around 9 pm so we still had about another 3 hours of snow to go. I guess there was about 12 inches on the ground at the time this Picture was taken. Today Sunday was clean up day it wasn't as bad as most Philly storms, this snow was light and fluffy not wet and heavy as Philly is most noted for.

In case anyone is wonder where I have been these last many months I have been busy with babysitting my grandaughter Layla scene here, and trying to get this old house in shape to sell which incidentally doesn't need anything more than a coat of paint and some TLC here and there, but all that takes up a lot of time. To make a long story short the time to sell was the wrong time what with the economy being what it is and the Christmas holidays fastly approaching, there was some interest but not much so Anna and I decided to take it off the market and wait till Spring..

Well I got to run it is getting time to watch the Eagles clobber or get clobbered by San Fran, it seems you never know what team will appear on game day,they have looked good the last couple of weeks but I will take one game at a time. See you all next time......

The word got out

2009-07-26T13:46:00.002-04:00

Yes the word got out, I can finally say I received a negative comment on my blog. Thanks to a distraught gentleman named Matt-Man. Thank you sir I will be looking forward to more of your useless commentary in the future. Seems funny though ole Matt and I seem to be one in the same, seems he was brought up a catholic, he for sure likes his liquid refreshment seems Wild Irish Rose is his preference, there we differ, as you all know a cold Brewski is my choice, the only thing keeping us from being buddies is his political preference, and I sure do not hold that against him. The problem of coarse is his eloquent description of me....LOL. Seems I am an A..hole. But that's ok that's why we are all Americans, Freedom Of Speech.
You know I could sit here and say things like where did the name Matt-Man derive from? ( The world wiping it's feet on you ) but I won't. I am a peace loving guy, who dealt with angry alcoholic people like Matt Man all my career, so I would not let a guy like him upset my day, as a matter of fact it gives me more to blog about. Thank you Matt for being the first negative comment to my blog, I will be looking forward to hearing from you again...

2009-07-24T10:53:00.007-04:00

In continuation of my Law Enforcement experiences I will say K-9 was my life, the faith and the love my dogs gave me far exceeded anything a human partner could give, don't get me wrong there were many buddies that I would entrust watching my back and as recent pass shows will give their life to protect the citizens of Philadelphia, but the loyalty of a k-9 partner is without a doubt a sure thing. I could honestly say I never had any fear entering any situation with my k-9 by my side. As I said in my earlier blog Fritz and I worked the subways, he was 3 when we started working together and I retired him at age 12, he developed Hip Arthritis so he lived happily at home till he was 15 with my second partner Lupo.

First I'll explain the name Lupo, it is simple, Lupo is Latin for Wolf. In comparison to Fritz who was considered a hard dog, Lupo was a soft dog meaning he wasn't as aggressive as Fritz, now don't get me wrong he was there when I needed him only he wanted commands where Fritz deciphered a situation and acted on it, this was ok in some incidents by not so good in others, example lets say I was suckered punched and went down Fritz would see this action and react, where as Lupo would wait till I gave him the command to "get that sinner". Now the other toss of the coin, if I had to help someone let say an elderly lady who had fallen my holding her helping her up would set Fritz off where Lupo would sit calmly and watch. So you see each had it's benefits.

Lupo as you can see from his picture above was a proud k-9. He always sat with his chest out and a smile on his face. We worked the subways for about 4 years and the transit system finally decided to put there own Security department in the tubes which got us Philly guys out. After leaving the subway we K-9 officers finally got to do what all those weeks of training were meant to do, Patrol the streets of Philadelphia. It was funny I was in the department for approx. 12 years and I felt like a rookie. It was a whole new ballgame. It was brought up to me by a trainer that Lupo having the temperament he had would be good for Narcotics Detection, and he was right, my boy discovered and cleared tones of narcotics and drug money off the streets and Airport. He won several regional competitions against other departments.

Another function we could participate in was the Shriner's Hospital for Children.We the K-9 unit would go to Shriner's and put on a demo for the sick children. Shriner's is comparable to St Jude's, it takes care of children at no expense to the parents. What we do there is go into the hospital and wheel all the children out (as seen above )and in a picnic type atmosphere spend the day showing them what the dogs were trained for and to mingle with them letting them play with the dogs. It is a great time for the kids and I think even more for the officers.
I worked Lupo till he was 11 he was 1 when we trained together so he also had a long and good career as a Phila. Police K-9. I had to euthanize him at age 12 due to throat cancer. See you all next time

Mr. President Of The People ???

2009-07-23T20:45:00.004-04:00

I had other topics to blog about, but instead, due to recent events, thoughts are festering in me that I feel I need to comment on. As most people who know me can tell you, I really don't publicly rant or rave my opposition to any political statements or decisions. I usually just act like a zombie and wonder what I, as one person, can do. Well, I think I was pushed to my limits with the Louis Gates fiasco. It was not so much as what did or did not happen for I wasn't there. And until the report comes out, I will reserve my opinion (unlike our Commander in Chief, our president of "ALL THE PEOPLE"). How in the name of the good Lord can a man of the people incite violence among the people he is sworn to protect. How can this man make a statement that he did not know all the particulars of a case then publicly, in front of the whole nation, call not one man, but the entire Cambridge Police Department, stupid. For the President of the United States this was a very unpresidential statement. As a retired Police officer, I also, as the President said, am a bit bias as to what went on in Gates' home. The break-in had nothing to do with it. Gates wasn't arrested for breaking in but for disorderly conduct. I sit back every day and read lots of comments and opinions from lots of my fellow bloggers and e-mails from friends and family alike all with their little pet names for Obama, but in my mind I wanted to give Mr. President the benefit of a doubt. No, I do not like many of the policies his staff (note I said his staff) enacted, but not being a scholar with a fancy degree in economy, although I do have a degree from the school of hard knocks, it was change I was looking for and hopefully it would turn the economy around. Well, no more, he showed his colors and I better stop now for I am getting ready to spit.

My first partner Fritz

2009-07-22T18:01:00.002-04:00

To continue with my blog of July 5th I entered Philly PD K-9 in September of 73. Little did I know at that time it would be the hardest most physically and mentally draining training the PD had to offer. Let me explain, you see when you first get to the unit you are assigned a dog,totally untrained all this dog knows is yesterday he had a loving family and home and now for some reason he is placed in a kennel with some strange guy trying to hook a lead ( Leash ) on him. Well needless to say my Fritz was the last dog to exit his cage,it took me and 2 experienced handlers to get him out. one guy with the noose the other had his tail and I had the lead with instructions that when they leave go just keep walking, don't stop, go with him wherever he takes you, well let me say I wound up 5 miles away from the Academy, I don't know if I or he was more exhausted but we definitely had a mutual agreement that we had ran far enough, he pulling and me tugging. It was funny I knew then that he and I were a team. Upon arrival back at the kennel we were the laughing stock, most of the other handlers, I believe there were approx. 28 total in the class at least in the beginning had a day of actual training, sitting, downs,walking in a heal, but Fritz and I didn't care because we knew we would come out on top, at least in our minds we did. Training lasted 14 weeks it consisted of Patrol, agility, building searches, field searches, Tracking and of course what every Handler and K-9 lives for the attack training, oops I mean criminal apprehension.

Alaska The Beautiful

2009-07-21T18:13:00.007-04:00

Hi all, well as you can guess by the photo's I am back from Alaska, I call it Alaska the beautiful, for one reason and one reason only, Alaska is beautiful. Getting there is a bit of a drag, my family and I started out at 5:30 am at Philadelphia International Airport and boarded a flight to Seattle a six hour flight,( which I will talk about in a moment) Arriving in Seattle we had a 3 hour layover till our next flight on Alaskan Airlines to Anchorage another 3 hour flight. Actually all went smoothly, the flights were on schedule the luggage was transferred from one plane to the other without incident, the takeoffs and landings were smooth and easy and even the turbulence going over the Rockies was at a minimum. Okay your right anyone who knows me knows I always complain about something. We flew to Seattle on US Airway, It all started when we paid $55.00 for all suitcases, not extra suitcases, but all suitcases then we were no sooner leveling off after takeoff when the flight attendants came down the isle offering liquid refreshments, anything from water to juice, coffee to soda all for a nominal fee of two Dollars, I started to think "hummmm". Now we are about two hours into the flight, the belly starts making strange sounds from way down, again the somewhat ageing flight attendants come down the isle offering sustenance for $7.00 of course, I believe it was what they called a Turkey Sausage on what they called a roll, oh yes they also had a bag of peanuts with the turkey I counted 7 nuts in the bag, um um good. Now I totally understand that this economy dictates cutbacks, raising prices and ways to make ends meet but can anyone tell me why when my wife and daughter were chilled and asked for a pillow and blanket they were told it would cost $7.00 apiece, now I thought that was a bit over doing it. Okay so much for the rants, now for the raves, landing in Anchorage, we were met by the ship companies (Royal Caribbean) representative, it was at this time I realized I was on vacation,because at this point I was treated like royalty, never had to touch a suitcase, and was chauffeured from place to place not told what to do but asked what we were doing next. Sounds great huh? it was. Well what I plan on doing is show several pictures of the trip on each blog and explain what you see. Today's blog pictures show Top Left: the Mendenhall Glacier, Top Right: me, my wife Anna, my daughter Lora and her husband Ed on the Mendenhall Glacier, Middle Left: Aerial View of a Mountain taken from a Helicopter, Middle Right: Town of Ketchikan, Our Stateroom

Gone North To Alaska

2009-07-05T00:03:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note to say I hope you all had a great Independence day, mine was spent with some of the family at my sisters and Brother-in-laws house, Charlie and sister Cathy really went wild on the grub, all my favorites, burgers, chicken ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, and we can not forget the all American Hot Dog, Add to that a lot of liquid refreshment lots of conversation and many laughs. It just doesn't get any better than that. Ok I did say I will keep it brief so I just want to let you know Anna and myself will be headed North to Alaska on Tuesday the 7th for a 10 day cruise. I will have lots to show and blog about on my arrival home. See you then

2009-07-02T17:42:00.003-04:00

It was brought to my attention in a blog written by a good buddy of mine who shared a few moments of my life when we were stationed at Nha Trang Air Force Base in Viet Nam, our 40th anniversary is this year. What Pat is going to do every day that he can he's going to write about his experiences in Viet Nam from the trip to and the return home. "patsdailyrant.blogspot.com" Well this gave me an idea for my blog, seeing how I am having difficulty in getting ideas, what would be easier than blogging about something that I did for 35 yrs. No I won't bore you and myself with war stories which most non police would not believe anyway, I would rather blog about the good aspects of the job, the people we meet that are true supporters, the activities I have been part of such as Shriners Hospital demonstration for crippled children, The Thrill show, School demonstrations to show school age children what Police K-9's can do.

I guess the best place to start is from the beginning I entered the Police Academy on December 12, 1972, back in those days it didn't take a brain surgeon to get through, it was more like 10 weeks of the basics on crimes code and traffic code, we also learned enough hand to hand to get hurt, to think of it you never really learned the job till you went on the street, and there you had the tutelage of the old timers, they were actually the ones who got you through the first couple months. My first assignment was to march in the Saint Patties day parade, it was a cold windy March day, I remember it well, my first official duty as an officer was chase down the Mayor's hat who happened to be the police commissioner before being elected Mayor. I can report the assignment went flawless, the hat had some dirt on it but I got the job done. They were so impressed with the speed and ease at which I performed my first job they rewarded me by making my first assignment the subway unit. It was ok working in the Bowels of the city, rideing the train just wasn't the same as driving a sector car, the clickity clack of the train just was't the same as the wail of a siren and the lights flashing that really got the juices flowing and the adrenaline rising, that's were a rookie cop belongs. About 9 months later I was given the opportunity to go to the K-9 unit and train with my first K9 partner Fritz seen here on the Dillworth Plaza which is on the West side of City Hall. He was probably pound for pound my best partner, don't get me wrong, all my K9 partners were great just Fritz being the first will always have a special meaning to me, kind of like your first date. (boy that will get me into the caca with misses B). Fritz was a strong powerful dog, he loved my family, his job, he knew the good guys from the bad.I worked Fritz about 12 years and I had him till he died at age 15. Well I just got company, my grandaughter so I will continue later...

Spring Has Sprung ????

2009-03-20T14:39:00.004-04:00

Ok here it is three months into the new year which by the way seems like twelve, and as of today spring has sprung, time to go out and wash the car and clean up the garden, sit out back on your favorite brewski chair when all the chores of the day are over and have that nectar of the gods, "BEER", Right? Well I think mother nature has other ideas, you see today here in Philly it is cold and damp, grayer than that gorgeous g6 sitting in front of my house. I even seen snow flakes earlier so I don't think I will be sitting out back to soon. Well there is a bright spot today and that is the Villanova Wildcats beat American 80-67 and even that looked a bit gray up until the second half you see till then the Wildcats were down by 14. Today we'll see how the Temple Owls do against Arizona State,which just happens to be on as I type.Well please forgive me but I must grab a Michelob Ultra, pretend I am in tghe back yard and I an in my favorite brewski chair and watch the rest of the game.....

" Progress Report "

2009-03-19T11:32:00.007-04:00

I know what you all are thinking, he can't be taking this long on remodeling his basement, right, well it is so. I started this project just before Thanksgiving it was to be a remake of my garage to a computer and exercise room, at least that is what I thought it would be, turns out Anna my gorgeous bride wanted to add a shower to the little under the steps powder room, well this changes any plans I had to be done before Christmas, now I have to raise the cement floor to connect the drainage pipe to the maine from the shower and relocate the sink, well to do all this I wanted to wait till the Holidays were over so we would at least have the powder room in the family room for our guest to use when they visit. You get the idea, Yes? As you can see in photo's I really have my hands full, some of what I am doing is as you can see in the top picture the square wooden frame on the wall that part of the wall has been removed and now extends into the garrage approx. 7' this will be the full bath with shower,the rest of garrage will be the puter and excercise room. So now it is the 19th of March, the March madness begins and I have this beautiful 61" flat screen in HD I got for Christmas, guess were I am going to be for the next couple of weeks? Well I should have it done by the Holidays.....

Season's Greetings

2008-12-23T11:26:00.002-05:00

From the Bevan Clan to Your's

Merry Christmas

Where Do I Begin

2008-11-13T14:21:00.002-05:00

Well Summer has ended and fall is in full swing and I just realized it has been that long since I jotted down any thoughts at all, I hope that isn't nature telling me something. I just left a comment on a good buddy of mine Pat Houseworth's blog it seems a fellow Airman who served in Viet Nam a year or so after Pat and I left was a bit critical to Pats Blog, so critical that he used some unsavory language in trying to make a point. You see Pat was definitely a McCain man, every day his blog was pretty much political, he brought out lots of reasons why McCain should be President and Obama should not be, so this reader named Charley read more into it and called Pat everything from raciest to many other expletives that I won't get into seeing how this is a family oriented blog. Pat seemed to sooth the beast named Charley by explaining to him in his own elegant way the meaning of Free Speech in America and that just because you do not care for a person white or black it does not mean your a raciest, and that my friends is why we just observed Veterans day. Now I read Pats Blogs religiously and even went back to reading it again to see where the racism came in and believe me there were none, just a man who studied both candidates and choose the one he thought would be best for this country in these turbulant times. Well Pat let me say thank you for your thoughts and time studying the candidates it made my decision a lot easier.Well it sure seems like I ranted on and got away from my original thoughts ( another Senior Moment ) which were pretty much catching you up on my late summer, early fall activities, but I will definetly do that next time.>>>> To Continue

Labor Day Block Party

2008-09-02T14:50:00.012-04:00

Well another summer has come and gone much to the sadness of children of all ages it means one thing" BACK TO SCHOOL". Yes those three little words that strikes fear into the hearts of our children, you remember those days unless of course you were one of those brainyacks that wanted nothing more than to get back to that building of higher education, that it is a waste of valuable time not cramming that reading, writing and arithmetic, not that there is anything wrong with that, it is just an observation on my part. Now to me the end of summer "Labor Day" means Party Time, every other summer that is, for you see that is when we close down the street and party. It is a day of good food, lots of games, good music and fun fun fun.It is a time when neighbors get together and with their friends and families eat, drink and be merry as you can see with the enclosed pictures. I want to personally thank my beautiful Lady Anna ( dressed in red) for all the time she spent in the kitchen preparing the food, it was delicious. It is a fact that everyone lends a hand,wether it is preparing a special desert,or bringing the ice for the coolers or as my grandaughter Laya did helped dad put the ice in the coolers. >>>>>>>

Just an added note since McCain chose Gov. Palin "GO McCain" how's that for chauvinist.

Saturday Night

2008-08-30T19:55:00.003-04:00

Well here I am on a Saturday night listening or the proper way of saying it is JAMMING to the music cd's and drinking my favorite brew, Yuengling Lager, I guess I am partial to Yuengling because it is brewed about 95 miles form here in a small town of Pottsville. I remember a day when one was an outcast if they stayed home on a Saturday night. It is truly funny how times change and what use to be important now is frivolous. Way back when, my buddies and I used to hang on the corners and grab the first over the age of 21 guy who would take the chance to go into the bar and get us a couple of quarts of brewski, hey on a good night we could probably get 3 or 4 guys and that gave us almost a quart of beer apiece and to 15 and 16 year olds that was a pretty good high, hell we could whip the world, so we thought.... LOL. we thought we were tough guys and partied till those damn cops pulled up and confiscated what little we had left. Oh by the way the tunes I am Jamming to are Elvise, Abba, Simon and Garfunkel, Buddy Holly, and a real treasure Sounds Of The South with artist the likes of George Thorogood, Hank Williams Jr. etc., now we are talking beer drinking music. Well let me get back to my day, keep in mind my neighbors and I are having our 17th bi-annual block party, for anyone not familiar what a block party is, we close off the street from one end to the other and party hardy. We have large balloon bouncers and clowns and all sorts of contest for the kids, example most decorative bike, egg races wheel barrel races Balloon tosses, for the adults we have Beer , Beer ,and did I mention Beer, actually we have volley ball and dance contest,music provided by a local Dj, it is generally just a great big party to get all the neighbors together and close out the summer season. Come to think of it, for all the republicans , they have McCain's choice to celebrate, to me it sort of makes it easier to choose. I was really in doubt until yesterday, now I will wait for the debates and if happens what I think will happen my decision will be assured. Well from Anna and me let us wish you a happy labor day, sit back relax and do absolutely nothing, we are ....LOL

My Apologies

2008-08-25T13:41:00.008-04:00

Before I get into my blog please let me apologies for not writing in some time but lifes little setbacks happen and one has to take care of that setback. Being retired has been a bit hard on me. I sort of went into a funk, I started to feel useless and wondered if this was all there was left, wake up, do a few house chores, make dinner, watch TV then go back to bed. I'll tell you this, I didn't like were my life was heading, I need more, a whole lot more, well I am happy to say I found it. I found it in my family. All I had to do was look around me, I seen my beautiful wife Anna, My equally beautiful daughter Lora Ann and her husband Eddie, my handsome son Charles his lovely girlfriend Kelly and last but not least my two grandchildren Charles Anthony and Layla Marie. God has also blessed me with my parents who are still with us at 91 and 81, both sound of mind and very active, hopefully their DNA will wear off on me. Now that I have found myself and pretty much got out of that funk I started to do things I was passionate about as an every day worker but was unable to do due to working. I always loved carpentry so I ( with a push from Anna ) decided to make my garage into a Bedroom-Computer room. I never parked my cars in it and all it was used for was storage, you know the things you don't need or use but someday maybe! Well that someday is now and the trashers will have a field day when I put it all out for trash pickup. My son Charles and I started last week studding out the garage and running electric and recess lighting, we are going to extend my half bath to a full bathroom with shower but the project is officially put on hold till I get a licensed plumber to reroute the drainage to the main. Above you'll see Charles and I on the second day, really not much to look at but it will give you an idea of the before and after. We have a long way to go but who is in a hurry? I have a block party on Sunday and I leave on a vacation for a week to Orlando Florida with Anna and her 3 sisters and besides that, I am retired and have all the time in the world to finish. How's that sound for an attitude change.

" Ahh The Good Old Days "

2008-07-29T15:42:00.003-04:00

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.

2008-07-23T15:33:00.007-04:00

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

2008-07-23T13:53:00.001-04:00

Blogger Buzz: Introducing Knol

Results

2008-07-18T11:11:00.002-04:00

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

2008-07-17T11:03:00.006-04:00

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

2008-07-14T11:08:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-11T10:30:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-08T11:59:00.003-04:00

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

2008-07-07T12:09:00.004-04:00

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

2008-07-06T18:41:00.000-04:00

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

Introduction: My First Blog

2008-06-30T14:05:00.000-04:00

To my faithful readers if I have any, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the pro's and cons of retirement. The Pro's:( ahem )
Now the Cons: First let me say retirement is probably great for most people, people who are ready for it. I guess I might as well be honest and say I was not. I really didn't know how great a job I had till I left it. The comradery between me and my buddies the jokes we played on each other, did we get mad, no, we got even. Another thing that's missing from ones life when retired is the idol chat, it could be on sports, or politics, on a guys days off, cars, movies, foods, you name it , it is fair game. And then you have the gossip, wow now that I could write a book on.Well this is my first Blog ever and I really am not sure what I am doing as far as posting it so I will end this session for now in case I loose it somewhere in cyberspace.