Oh gee, here's the day off that I get before I start my midnight shift.

Steph,
That was a very nice conversation we had on the phone today!

I can't wait to read more of Atlas Shrugged and I hope I can help you more on the subjects discussed earlier.

Ok, It's been a week since and not much has happened; but, I'm still here. It's the First-of-the-month: "Payday!" One payday per month kinda sucks (especially since I'd been used to being paid every Friday)! It'll all be gone after I pay bills, thank goodness that Kay gets a check every two weeks!


Gee, this post doubles all of my previous posts en total.

Gee whiz, the troops were busy yesterday (Sunday) running all kinds of traffic and with the crashes that we had, plus the rain, it made for a busy day. Oh well, the day went by fast at that and I was actually off by 15:00 (3:00 P.M.) and now I have a 3 day weekend all my own! I'm off today with the rest of you, but I'm also off on Tuesday and I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday at 15:00. So, from 15:00 Sunday to 15:00 Wednesday is 72 hours which equals 3 days; and this I get every 6 weeks. Plus Holiday comp time earned for today which I can use at some later date.

For the start of a 3-day holiday weekend, we were sure slow today.

You know, I really dislike some banks; especially the ones who are cold-hearted in times like we're having. I hate to admit it, but we've had some problems, and one particular bank, I won't name which one--but the initials are WF, refuses to give one extra day to pay them. Now, I will admit that they negotiated nicely, and fairly with me on this situation; but with the holiday on Monday, I want to make sure the money's in the bank before I write a check to them on Thursday next. I asked for Friday, just to make sure that the funds are available, and they say: "NO!"

I will remember your name and I hope you've got all your 'ducks-in-a-row' if/when we do business and I'm the one that's in control of the situation.

Back to work today... I've had two days of good rest and ready to work for a four day work week.

Today and tomorrow off, then start four days of daytime relief: 0800-1600.

Kay and I watched the first disc of the Sopranos' (Netflix). We have, what an old friend called: "Peasant T.V."; ie: we receive off of an antenna... and yes, we have our converter boxes. I got my first one in 2004, it's an LG HD box with a DMI (no not HDMI) interface hooked to a 27" HD 1080i flat panel. We’ve had free HD and SD television for more than 5 years now. I cannot fathom what all the hub-bub is now about the digital TV conversion. I’ve been aware of it for a decade now.

In total we have 5 converter boxes in our house hooked up to various components such as DVD recorders, VCR's (yes we still use tape) and regular televisions. I can watch DVD, record TV to DVD; watch TV, record a different channel to DVD, play Wii and record television to DVD. With these RW- and RW+ Re-recordable DVS's they’re just like tape, watch it, erase it and re-record on it. If you're using RW- media; beware, you must use the video mode (not VR mode) and finalize it or you can't watch it on another player. It took me almost two years to actually figure this out. I was recording a bunch of movies onto R- just to keep them (when I had satellite TV), and that was ok, but I couldn't record a sports event to watch at work and erase it. I finally figured out, after reading the instruction manual for the recorder, that I was using the VR mode—which made for easier editing but it’s not compatible with other make players. So I put the games on a one write only, permanent use ‘R-.’ (At this time I had only one recorder that only did the "-" format.) I had to put some football games on the permanent record (no erase) "R" disc's. And the way the Cowboys ended the season, they’re now just ‘coasters.’

However, if you're using a player that uses the "+" format you can use RW+ and you don't even have to finalize the disc's, they're watchable on all players as soon as you finish recording. It's the best of the two format's in my humble opionon.

So now I have one "cheap" dvd recorder that only uses the "-" format DVD's and it's in the living room and I have one VCR/DVD recorder with built in NTSC/ATSC tuner that's in the bedroom that does both the "-" and "+" formats. It'll also dub vcr to dvd.

With 40+ channels free and all the majors in HD, I simply got tired of paying for Cable/Satellite Television that shows the same old BS over and over.

So we dumped them, and went with Netflix's 3 at home for $16.99/month with the ability to watch movies on the computer. Now with the "watch anytime" that Hulu offers for free, who really needs cable and their >$80.00/month bills?

Titan offer's a really good television schedule online, and I'm able to use them with my Wii on the 53" Sony in the living room. Yep, the Wii has a built in web browser--ok it won't do everything, but it will go to many of my favorites and it also has a built in news and weather programs.



Also tomorrow I am going to meet with Andy K5CEO to talk about R.A.C.E.S. and the problems in the organization right now.

I talked to Stephanie about Wells Fargo today also.

this blog will give me one more than I did in all of 2007 and 2008 combined

I'ts now Monday afternoon and after working for seven days straight I get 2 days off.

It's Saturday and it rained all morning. We only worked three very minor crashes all morning. Only two more days and I'll have two days off.

and I though yesterday was busy... 3 stolen vehicles; 1 guy wanted in 3 counties who ran and they had to hunt him down... found him!

Wow, yesterday was a 'productive' day!
4 crashes worked
3 teletypes sent
2 warrants confirmed
and
1 stolen vehicle recovered (from 6 years ago)

Yep I'm on "Twitter" just like almost everyone.
User name: kw5kw

This is the link to the Texas Department of Public Safety for those who have a hard time finding it. This is the hard to find FAQ about points on driver licenses and the even harder to locate offenses that produce points; there are a lot of them! Remember that 10% above posted speed limit is the threshold at which points are accrued for speeding.

I work for the Texas Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol Division, Bureau of Communications and Information technology. Our name changed at the first of this year but not our duties.

Ok, I did the North Texas Classic Bike Ride yesterday morning; it was ok -- I had fun. I was the 10 mile lead then I went back and swept the course and back home.

Jamie was down from Levelland to pickup Jackie's last things at our house--the spa and the storage building. He got them both! Never again will we have an 'old friend' move in with us.

We cooked hamburgers for Mark, Jamie, Carson and their buddy along with Stephanie, Austin, Aidan (he's kinda small for hamburgers tho). We finally have our complete house/garage/yard back!

My wife and I went to go see the new Star Trek movie at 7:00 PM yesterday (the very first showing of the movie to the public)--awesome, simply awesome!
I like how they developed the characters younger sides; with Spock, McCoy and Kirk are really right on; Checkov (sp), Sulu and Scotty will come into their own in the next installment of the franchise.

I like how they didn't "fix" the problem that was caused by going back (in time) and preventing it in the first place (Voyage Home)--that they had to move on just as we have to move on and can't go back and fix our lives when things go bad. One simply has to move on and reconstruct their lives.

Go see it and and I think you'll like it.

Here it is, a bit over two years since my last entry... I'd forgotten about this page until an unknown acquaintance brought me back to his page with his thoughts and my inability to sign in to post a comment. I remembered I had a page here and it took me two days to remember my user name and password.

Well, tomorrow (May 7, 09) and I'll be with the DPS for two years. Yea!