HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!
Yes, I've been back in the U.S. for a whole year now ( and a week or so) and it has felt good. To help me celebrate the Army has decided to send me on an all expensed paid vacation, don't worry it's still states-side. I'm currently at AT (annual training) and we arrived on Monday. We are supporting the Oklahoma Field Artillery BDE in training as they prepare to head to Iraq. The 45th BCT is in the home stretch of their deployment and will be home this fall. Now back to my trip.
It has come to the Army's attention that for the most part I only speak English. I know, I can arrest someone in Spanish, tell you you look pretty in French, but darn it, the Army expects more. So, they are sending me to Sierra Vista, Arizona to learn Arabic. I've heard all everyone exclaim, "Well, they'll just deploy you if you learn that language". They have been deploying me without the language wouldn't you agree? Anyway, I'll be leaving for Arizona around the middle of June and will be there until December. The Army at first wanted me to pack up Mrs. Dub, Miss Dub, the horses, the goats, the dogs and the cats and move them with me. I had to wonder what they were doing in the back rooms if they thought that was going to happen for six months. Someone managed to get them back on track. Well, as I'll be playing soldier more I should be able to update more again, gotta go for now.
Be safe and have a great day.

04 April 2008, Ah, it's Friday. I'm missing work to be a weekend warrior. We are headed back out to the ranges to run one range and get the rest of our soldier's qualified with their rifles.
I took my patrol car to the garage to get the fuel pump fixed. The garage decided they would dig around under the hood and then sent it out for estimates on repairs. I'm driving a 2000 Ford Crown Victoria with 106,000 miles and hopefully in the fall will get a brand new 2008, where I will swap them out. Well, the garage came back with $1400 worth of repairs my car "supposedly" needed and it got deadlined this last week. Deadline means I don't get it back and each and every day I work I have to try and find a patrol car not being driven by someone else to use. This becomes tiresome quickly. It also means that each day I have to check everything in the car to make sure it works and it set to my standards. This came in play yesterday as I was attempting to stop a car with 4 people in it, one of which was wanted on warrants for a shooting. Well, the siren wasn't set as I would normally operate and instead of a siren blasting, I had the horn honking, but just once. This confounded me, as I was busy with everything else, and the other car wasn't stopping. We didn't go far enough to call it a pursuit, and within a couple of blocks, all four suspects jumped out of the vehicle while it was still moving. Two of them had guns with them. Two detectives and myself nabbed the two with guns pretty quickly, but the other two made it through the back yards and were picked up within 10 minutes. All four went to jail including the one we were after. Certainly an exciting call, but I could do without all the paperwork, hehe. Well, I better get back to playing soldier.
Be safe and have a great weekend.

25 March 2008, It's Tuesday and back to school. I took today off from work for two reasons. One, I'm working tomorrow on my regular day off and so I've exchanged this one for that, and two, I need to get ready for school tonight. Uh, what a headache.

Over the last two weeks, the FFA Junior Livestock show occurred in our State Fairgrounds area, which has seen a major renovation over the last few years. It's looking pretty good. Well apparently, at the very beginning of the set up for the livestock show, there was an escape. A steer made it's way out and up onto the I-40 interstate highway. It decided to travel east in the west bound lanes before running across the three lanes of traffic and jumping the center concrete barrier and then crossing the east bound lanes. City officers managed to get it off the highway and down on the north bank of the Canadian River, which was also renovated. There we chased it up and down a one mile stretch until Animal Welfare showed up and managed to get a tranquilizer dart in it. We finally got it roped and tied down until a stock trailer could arrive. Now the steer didn't like us very much, and at one point it was me, him and a bunch of ropes. Eventually we got him in the stock trailer and away he went. During the escapades, we managed to stop for some photos, as another officer said this was as close as he has ever been to a real cow. Me, I grew up cleaning out cattle trailers at the stockyards in Woodward and actually love the smell of manure. I've only added the picture of me.

In other news, Miss Dub, after two years, finally got her braces off yesterday. It's a new smile.

Be safe and have a great day.

21 March 2008, Well, I got called back home to address a potential gas leak in the furnace, I guess crime fighting will have to be put on hold. Sorry for the long intermission between posts, it's crazy out there. I've decided that 12 hours of college was definitely too much, but I made it to spring break, or as I had to inform our professors, spring homework. The idea behind spring break was the word "break", referring to not having to worry and due school work for the entire week. This is especially important when every student in the class is also a full time worker. But our professors felt it was a good time to do outside projects and continue the theme of homework. Remind me to finish college at an early age next time around.

The family is doing great. We took the opportunity this last weekend to go on another short vacation and went to a state park in Southeastern Oklahoma. We spent Sunday hiking a little more than 4 miles up and down three separate mountains. Mrs. Dub was getting tired of me comparing this adventure to my climbing the Gar back in Afghanistan, but I'm the kind of guy if you tell me what bugs you I'll keep doing it for fun.

As you can see, the girls were worn out.

07 Feb 2008, America's Dumbest Criminals, did anyone ever watch that program. Even Jay Leno does it from time to time. There's nothing like relying on simple human nature to help make an arrest. Today, we had a call that a guy knew where his stolen truck and the suspect where located and wanted us to go get it and make the arrest. Well, we show up and find this is something of an apartment complex and we have no idea what apartment the suspect might be in. We locate the stolen truck. We decide that since the victim gave us a phone number for the suspect, we should give him a call.
phone rings
"Hello"
Hey, is **** there?
"Yes, just a minute.......
Hello?
Hey ****, I need you to come get me at the corner of 10th and Penn.
Hello?
Yeah, this is Tony, come meet me at the corner down here, and hurry.
We hang up and wait. One minute goes by and someone exits one of the apartments and gets into the stolen vehicle. We immediately pull him over, and it's our guy. Arrest made.
Mrs. Dub and Miss Dub are doing fine. We are staying busy. Hope all is well with you.
Be safe and have a great day.

31 January 2008, Well, the month will be over today. I possibly bit off more than I can chew with school. A full 12 hours seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm managing to get the assignments done, but it's taking a great deal of my time. I believe once I get back into the stride of school, things should not be too bad.
Our trip to Nashville was great. We visisted the Grand Ole Opry (downtown) and saw several great performers. Sunday we went to President Andrew Jackson's plantation and toured it. We hit the road headed back west, stopping at a couple of Civil War sites along the way. First was Parker's Crossing, which is smack dab in the middle of I-40. As I understand it, the battle got so fierce, traffic was stopped in both directions. From there we headed south just a bit and spent the night in Savannah, Tn. The next morning we went to Shiloh. We were on the road again by 11 am and had to head back home.
Mrs Dub attended the Oklahoma Quarter unveiling, have you gotten your's yet? She ended up buying a roll and then the boxed set which includes one each from Denver and Philidephia. Did I mention she was actually at the Denver Mint and was able to stamp her own quarter? It sounds like a good trip.
Miss Dub is doing well, attempting to stay out of trouble. She brought in straigt A's for the 2nd nine weeks, so that helps.
We are getting a little bit of snow this morning, but reports are less than 2" will fall, and it's all be gone by tomorrow. Be safe and have a great day.

19 January 2007, I'm coming to you live from Nashville TN tonight. We started our drive on Friday evening after I finished a part-time job. We stayed in Van Buren, Arkansas and finished our drive today. Tonight we are headed to the Grand Ole Opry for the show and to see Charlie Daniels be inducted tonight. Tomorrow we are headed to President Andrew Jackson's Hermitage to see his plantation.
We came up with this trip about two weeks ago when we watched a history channel program covering the life of Andrew Jackson and when Mrs. Dub checked into it, it appeared to be a good weekend vacation to check things out. Miss Dub and the in-laws came too.
I started back to college this last week. I'm taking classes in Emergency Responder Administration. It seems to be the direction I'm headed. After the first week of classes I finally purchased a new laptop and when we get back on Monday, I'll check into getting a wireless card for it. I'll have plenty of research to do for my classes and there is no way it can get done on that dial-up. The bonus to that is possible getting back to blogging more. I'm hooked up in the hotel room right now as we are waiting for Miss Dub to get cleaned up.
Be safe and have a great weekend.

07 Jan 07, Well, spending the holidays with my family was great. I've had the last 10 days off from work, with the exception of National Guard drill this last weekend. We have been just been enjoying our time. I head back to work tomorrow. The weather has been interesting with record highs over the weekend.
I got a call from one of my Afghanistan interpreters. It seems two of them and their families have made it to the United States on the Interpreter Visa. They are currently in Minnesota. It's an adjustment for them and they are currently looking for jobs. There are a couple of soldiers in that area that knew them so they are getting some support.
The family is doing good. I wish I had more to report but that's all for now. Be safe and have a great day.

24 December 2007, It's been an interesting month. The ice storms that raged through Oklahoma put us without power for 7 days before the electric company got it back up. By the third day we had gone out and bought a generator. I spent a couple of days cutting up the downed trees and have to move all the branches to the curb or brush pile. The power's been back up for a week now but was flickering Saturday as the wind was pushing snow in the state. We had driven down the highway and noticed that the lines were blowing quite a bit. OG&E came back out and tethered the power lines to make them more stable and to avoid any further damage. Most of the snow melted yesterday, but on this eve of Christmas, on the north side of buildings and houses we still have a little snow left.
Last year I had a White Christmas in Afghanistan. I am blessed to be home this Christmas with my family. We are having our Italian dinner with family at the in-laws tonight and then Christmas day out at our place.
May your day be blessed and your travels safe. Merry Christmas.

04 December 2007, Well, I just keep changing uniforms. Yesterday ended my week on the streets and today I'm in the classroom getting Army training. The weekend went pretty good. I worked a car accident Sunday morning. I always have issues trying to figure out how someone has an injury accident in the middle of a residential street at 1030 in the morning on a Sunday, but someone made it happen. The driver of the vehicle hit a parked car. I spoke with the owner of the parked car asking him for his identification and insurance information. This is required for the accident report as well as the guy getting his car fixed by the other driver. Well, he was Hispanic, which isn't a problem for me. He tells me he doesn't speak English, still not a problem. I'm not fluent in Spanish but I am capable of getting vital information and relaying some commands. I asked him for his identification in Spanish, surely this will work, right? No, he still doesn't understand me. [As an officer I deal with a lot of Hispanic people on a daily basis. My views on the illegal immigration in this country are simple. I understand why you would want to come here to live, but if you came here because of what we offer don't try to change it to be what you came from, you left for a reason. I don't understand that small population of male immigrants who just seem to want to work enough to buy beer and stay drunk, why bother exerting this much energy to come here when you could do that where you came from?] I turn around and exclaim, "How can you not understand English or Spanish?" Well, I'm finally able to get things done and move on to my next call.
Be safe and have a great day.

02 December 2007. Well, things are going good here. Mrs. Dub is glad to have me home for the holidays this year. I worked Thanksgiving Day so we have our big meal that evening after work. Mrs. Dub's family on her mother's side is Italian and one of the Thanksgiving traditions is to make canoli shells the day after Thanksgiving. They've been doing it for years. Mrs. Dub was in the middle of it from start to finish this year. I was in it for most of it. The family made over 300 shells this time. The shells stay good all year and each family will take a number of shells and fill them when ready to share with friends. I'm really looking forward to Christmas because being a part of an Italian family means the Christmas dinner is Italian. I really do love it.
I'm hoping to resolve the Internet problem at home in January. The dial up is just so slow I hardly ever even bother getting on it anymore. You noticed? Sorry. We stay busy enough at work that I don't normally have time to mess with it there either. Speaking of plans for the new year, I have submitted my package to continue my bachelor's degree. If all goes well I'll start classes on January 14th. I need to pick up the pace as my little brother is in Ft Worth Texas and is working on his school too. He applied for Ft. Worth Police Dept and is now just waiting to here back from them. Keep your fingers crossed.
We put up the Christmas tree and I decorated it yesterday. This year we have a 9 foot pre-lit tree. It's bright enough that I'm afraid we will be attracting ships in the night or causing planes to land in the back pasture. There's been some traditions where people hang the Christmas tree upside down from the ceiling. Mrs. Dub suggested that, but I'm not sure how that would work, it looks cool, but I don't think so, (at least this year).
Well, I better take off for now. Be safe and have a great day.

16 NOVEMBER 2007

HAPPY CENTENNIAL

OKLAHOMA

Yes, it's finally here. It's been an exciting week with the finale tonight at the Oklahoma City Ford Center. The list of stars at this event makes you think we are hosting the American Music Awards instead of celebrating our statehood.
The start of the week had me volunteering with Mrs. Dub to work a conference downtown for two days and our reward was a night at the Cowboy Hall of Fame for dinner. The entertainment during that meal was a 45 minute concert from Blake Shelton followed by another 45 minutes with Vince Gill. We managed second table out from center stage and had a great time. Because of Mrs. Dub we managed to get 3 tickets to tonight's event and we are so lucky. It's been a great week, but with all that's gone into it, I may skip our bi-centennial and just watch it from home.
Life as a cop has been keeping me busy. I've had so many accidents to work lately that I feel I'm getting swamped. I went to back officers on an alarm call yesterday. The first officer on the scene noticed an open door in the back and as soon as the second officer got there they went in. As I came into sight of the back door I saw both officers lunging out of sight and then running into the front room. I raced into the house ready for anything and startled both of them. They had opened an interior door and let out a cat, now they were chasing it to put it back. Good grief.
Well, gotta get back to it. Odat, do an extra big Happy Dance Friday, be safe and have a great day.

08 November 2007, The Big Event is finally here. Actually, November has been full of big events, I'm almost ready to get the month over. Miss Dub turned 14 years old last week. I know, I should have blogged then. Tonight is her school play, "Into the Woods". She's been in several plays before, but what makes this one big, is I'm finally here to see it. Yes, the military has seen to it that I have missed her other roles. What other roles has she played? Well, there was the Evil Step-Mother for Cinderella in "Into the Woods", the Queen of Hearts in "The Trial of Alice in Wonderland" and now the Wicked Witch in "Into the Woods". Does anyone else see a pattern arising out of her roles? She just mentioned she was a dalmatian in 101 Dalmatians, but that was in kindergarten, and she was still likable then.
Next week marks the 100 year centennial for the State of Oklahoma. We have plans to attend a couple of the events. If all goes well, I'll get some pictures posted.
Work and military are keeping me busy, we had drill this last weekend and I had to teach a couple of classes.
Too much more I could report about, but I'll stop for now. Be safe and have a great day.

27 October 2007. Well, I spent 7 days at Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas drawing new equipment and getting trained up on it. We got back Thursday afternoon. I went to a part time job, this is a job the we get paid on our days off to provide security for while wearing our police uniforms. I work one regularly every other Friday for 11 hours. It's not hard work at all. During the summers one of my favorite part time jobs is working security for the Oklahoma Red Hawks Triple A baseball games. I love baseball and being paid to watch it is certainly a bonus. I missed this season due to getting back late in the season.
Today we spent all day at Mrs. Dub's grandparents house were we were having an estate sale. Her grandfather died a couple of years ago and her grandmother was finally placed in assisted living for health reasons. We have spent many hours getting the house ready for a sale and we finally went for it today. The weather couldn't have been better. A perfect day to be outside.
We will be over there for a little while longer tomorrow. Everyone is doing fine and Miss Dub brought home all A's on her report card. I'll be nice to her for a day or so, then back to the educational grindstone for her too.
Well, we need to figure out what to have for dinner. Be safe and have a great day.

14 October 2007. What a busy week. I finished up my set at work on last Tuesday. Wednesday my neighbor Rich and I worked on getting one of three tractors and one of two brush-hogs to work so I could cut my pasture area. We finally got there and I managed to get about a third of it cut before I had to quit for the evening. Thursday I went to the armory to work. Friday was at one of my part time jobs. Saturday was spent at the armory as my first day as Acting 1SG. Drill went pretty good. Things are still out of kilter since the Brigade is preparing to mobilize and ship off to train up for the Iraq mission. That finally brings us to today, Sunday. Today I am working with the OCPD ERT (emergency response team) setting up security along the route for the Oklahoma Centennial Parade in downtown OKC. We are now just a month away from our state finally being 100 years old.
Well, I better get back to the grindstone. Be safe and have a great day.

19 September 2007, it's been a busy week and now the month is almost over. I just got up this morning and while Mrs and Miss Dub are still in bed, I thought I should take a moment and update. We moved 200 bails of hay this last week as we prepare for winter. I have what's left of two large branches from a pecan tree in our driveway. I'm hoping to get it split today and put up out of the way. The weather seems nice today, so I'm hoping to get a lot of the outdoor chores done.
Work news - I quit one of my part time jobs. This was the one that went from Wednesday night 830 to Thursday morning 830. We can't seem to get paid in a more consistent pattern. I finally got check #3 yesterday, after waiting 5 weeks. Check #1 was 3 weeks, and check #2 was 5 1/2 weeks. I am owed one more check and we are at 2 weeks right now.
Army news - Lt M has taken over command of B Company, formally known as the M.I. Company. The 1SG has been picked up by the 179th INF BN as a 1SG for the upcoming deployment to Iraq. His plans are to retire upon completion of this mission. With that, the 1SG slot became open for B Co. and I've been selected to fill the slot. I'll be an 'acting' 1SG until I can get my school done. That would be the school that got canceled twice this summer when we were returning home.
Miss Dub got her progress report this week and her lowest grade was a 94. We are definitely to proud of her, but give her more grief than anything because we known she's capable of doing much better. We did break down and buy her some Prisma Colored Pencils for her art class and her teacher told us that was great. She's working hard at being "the witch" for the school play, Into the Woods. We've had an hour here and an hour there that we have sat down and played the new X-Box 360 HALO-3. It's pretty good and we are enjoying it. I am trying to keep it in small dosages.
Well, it's time to start the day of relaxation with running some errands and doing chores, I fed the horses and goats this morning to allow both of them to sleep in. Be safe and have a great day.

19 September 2007, Well, we had our first drill this last weekend, keeping me busy from Friday through Sunday when we had our "Welcome Back" ceremony. Starting this next month, I'll be drilling back in Oklahoma City.
Work has been fun. Today we went to a house because the 8 year old boy refused to go to school. I had to see the parents who were allowing a boy to run the house. We explained to the parents the subtle differences between discipline and abuse and assured the parents that they could wallop away as long as they didn't cross that line. The 8 year old's response was to pick up a chair and throw it. This prompted us to assist the young lad into a pair of handcuffs and placing him in the back of a police car. Then he was driven to the school and dropped off. He had a much different attitude after we talked too him. His 11 year old brother decided to go peacefully.
Monday, I bought a newer truck. We have been looking since I got back. I've been driving my 1994 for 10 years and it was time to upgrade. Now, I didn't get the crew cab 3/4 ton I would like, but it's a 2001 extended cab Chevy and in very good shape. I took it today and put some new tires on it.
Well, be safe and have a great day.

09 September 2007. It's been a good weekend. The Culligan Man came out and fixed the plumbing on Friday, around 1030 that morning. I took the day off and relaxed. I picked Miss Dub up after school took her shopping for pajama's and a new toilet. The old toilet was still leaking so we decided to just replace it. Miss Dub went to a pajama party Friday night at the church.
Saturday I was back at work but it was a nice day and we managed to listen to the Oklahoma Sooner's game on the radio in between calls. Later that evening my Oklahoma State Cowboys wrapped up a wonderful evening with another win over a Florida team, sorry Empress Bee and Sarge Charlie.
Today was another good day at work. Then around 3 this afternoon, we encountered a man who had been diagnosed with mental health issues and also decided to get a meth fix. Well, it didn't fix anything. The car he was riding in swerved across the road and hit a large curb when he frightened his girlfriend who was driving. He became paranoid that everyone was trying to kill him and that we weren't the real police. Look, here's my badge, here's my name plate. I have the pretty black and white car. Well, I finally talked him into the backseat.....of my partner's car. Every time Sgt G wanted to get out of the car to talk "Mike" was thinking we were going to blow the car up with him in it. At one point, Sgt G got out of the car and I told him, "on the count of three, we both run from the car". Of course, we didn't do this, "Mike" was prepared to kick out the window and I had stopped him 3 times from doing just that. We finally managed to get him to the crisis center where they wouldn't take him until he went to the regular hospital first to get cleared medically. We had to call for a second shift officer to finish things up as it was time for us to be off the clock. Overtime is a dirty word in the department unless you can justify it.
We had another wonderful dinner at home that Mrs. Dub prepared, chicken and mushrooms over orzo pasta. She's been working on her cooking, Robin Miller, Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee are helping. We brought up the fact that I haven't had a hamburger helper in 3 months.
Questions about my rifle. It's a DPMS AR-15 M4. It's the civilian model in the essence of being a semi-auto one trigger pull, one bullet down-range. I really don't need a 3 round burst or full auto, they're fun to shoot but not practical. I'm hoping to get to the range next week to get the sights adjusted and zeroed.
Well, be safe and have a great day.
Well, be safe and have a great day.

06 Sept 2007, Good Day, Bad Day. Well, I thought I was having a good day. I called the gun store and finally, my rifle had come in. It's only been 4 months since it was supposed to be in my hands. Now I have an M4 just like the one I deployed with, minus the cool tools to put on it, (don't tell Mrs. Dub yet, but I plan to get some). That was the good part of the day.
We came home after a long day at work and had dinner. Then we ran to Mrs. Dub's grandmother's house where we did some packing and brought a car load home with us. We are in the process of selling the house and contents inside as Grandma V is living in assisted living now. We enter our garage.....the Bad day......I see a stream of water coming from the front of the garage to the driveway. I follow it up to the water softener and begin feeling of the PEX water lines connected, when all of a sudden.....the pipes burst and begin shooting water everywhere. Mrs. Dub quickly runs to the breaker box, (I was very impressed with her quick action) and I turn the shut off valve on the softener. The copper elbows had virtually disintegrated right before my eyes. This is the second plumbing job since I've been home that is requiring PEX tubing and crimping. I'm seeing a pattern in which I may need to spend $150 to buy the crimping tools and components to fix this myself and then any new plumbing problems I can also fix. A house call by a plumber runs the same $150 but I have to pay it each time. Guess I'll be taking some time off in the morning.
I'm also at 98% on Miss Dub's bathroom, but the toilet tank has sprung a leak again, so we may just replace the entire toilet with a new, not sure if she's worth it. I did see a 5 gallon paint bucket for $6 and she could just empty it each night.
Be safe and have a great day.

04 September 2007, I am definitely getting behind in every aspect of my life. My apologies to everyone. Not so much that I haven't been blogging, but that I haven't been reading other blogs. I hate not keeping up with everyone I've come to know. Maybe I need another deployment so I'll have more time? Yeah, bad idea.
The last two weeks have flown, and we have been busy around here. On top of that, Mrs. Dub had her birthday last Friday. I meant to try and get on the system to make the grand announcement, but as she said, it isn't a milestone one. The next milestone will be in two more years when she turns .........my computer won't let me type out her age. I knew she would mess it up while I was gone, oh well, it's in two more years.
Things are keeping me hopping, just when I get one thing started, something else pops up and needs immediate attention. There just isn't anyway to get ahead.
Mrs. Dub is doing fine at work, heck, I don't know, maybe she is blogging better than me, I haven't read hers in a while either. Miss Dub is back in school and just got the part of the Witch in the school play "Into the Woods". We think she might have been born to play this part. Overall, she's doing well, just wanting to test the boundaries to see what she can get away with, funny thing is, the boundaries never moved and were left right were they were on any other given day. Maybe she'll pick up on that sometime in the near future. Probably not, teenagers know everything and parents and deaf and dumb, well, I am deaf, sorta.
I hope to have more for you tomorrow. I must make time.
Be safe and have a great day.