Lifetime Continuous Learning

Facebook is great. You get reacquainted with old friends and old aquaintances. Plus, it’s a sounding board. Especially for politics.

Recently, though, I learned a valuable lesson that I learned years ago. Somehow, I just forgot. That lesson “Nobody, I mean nobody cares what I think. Not anymore than I care about what they think.” So why do we continue pushing our thoughts towards others?

Maybe, we have this deep inner feeling that by shoving our opinions down peoples throats that we will miraculously save them from being wrong. They definitely need to see my way….. or do they? Turns out, they think they’re smarter than me, and they want to miraculously save me from myself because they know that I’m a complete moron.

That’s ok, please try to convince me. I love learning new ideas, but from now on, don’t expect me to cram my ideas down your pie hole. I know better.

Several years ago, when I wanted to be successful, I studied the greats. Norman Vincent Peale. Napoleon Hill. Dale Carnegie. I even listened to the new guys. Anthony Robbins. Brian Tracy. I can honestly say, I think it worked. I think I’m successful. I own two houses out right. I have a Corvette, a Mustang, and a truck, all paid for. I am debt free and I retired at 54 from a second career. I don’t consider myself rich, but I do think I have succeeded in my career goals. I would still like to better my financial position, but who wouldn’t.

One thing I prided myself in was problem solving. I believe that every situation, once over, should be analyzed. What did I do right, what wrong? How will I react next time. I honestly believe this has kept me from harm’s way in both careers.

I always believed in listening to both sides (or more) before making a decision. Of course, in police work, you sometimes have to make a snap judgement and act, even if it turns out wrong. Then you analyze.

Lately, though, I have become an asshole. I became the people I hate. You know, the ones who think they are smarter and better than you. They bore you with facts to show their superiority and so you can see how smart they are. They interrupt when your talking and interject their thoughts because they are obviously more important than yours. Yup, bad news, that’s me. Luckily, I have realized this to some extent and pray that I can learn from this and change back to the old me.

Back to re-learning and continuing on a lifetime of education.

Publicize My Thoughts?

I have published my thoughts on this blog and have done so for some time. Before the internet, I used to blog, but it didn’t have a name and they weren’t posted where strangers could happen upon them. But do I publicize them now? Tough question.

Way back in 1970, there was a guy named Vic who was a senior on the track team and I, a junior. We both were high jumpers. I can’t remember ever beating him. One meet, I finally hit 6’0”. I think Vic may have gone 6’1” at that meet. I’m not sure if he ever knew, but I was kinda jealous. Vic was leading the way. The way I wanted to go. I wanted to be #1. He was.

I haven’t seen Vic since then (1970) but he has appeared one again in my life via facebook. I love technology.

Well, here’s the deal. Vic is once again leading the way. Vic has a blog. He writes on it often and it’s very good. Plus, he’s got followers and he wants people to read it. Do I follow the path that he has created or do I continue to write for myself? Do I let people in on ME, what I’m all about. Tough call. I’m not sure. Scares hell outa me.

Let me think about it. We’ll see if I’m that brave. I know, I know. 20 years plus in the military, 20 years as a cop, what have I got to be afraid of? Rejection, failure? Like I pondered before, letting people in?

Still thinking.

Smog Test

I went to get my smog test. $39.99

I went to my normal guy, Joe who has been doing my smog testing for years. He and a guy named Mike aka Shorty (cause he’s about 4 foot nothing) used to do it in the 90’s when I had our Olds Cutlass and on the truck. They had a shop in Hemet. They split up and Joe moved his place to San Jacinto.

So every two years, I go see Joe. Well, Joe’s machine broke and it’ll cost over $30K to replace it. He says then in 2012, the laws change so he’ll need to put another $50k into the business for udated equipment. He says he makes less than $20 per car, so he would have to do over 4000 cars just to pay for the equipment, and that’s not counting the rest of his overhead.

So now, Joe no longer does smog testing. He sent me to Kurt at Hurley’s. Kurt is a guy I worked with at the PD’s brother in law.

Kurt says that he is a smog repair station and I need to go to a test only place to get the test done and he can’t recommend anyone, but since I had been with Joe so long, had I seen Shorty’s place.

So I went to Shorty’s which is called Juan’s Test Only Smog Station. I almost died. I had to go into a dry cleaners, Juan’s, to set up the test, then drive around back. There was Mike/ Shorty right there.

They had a garage around back of the dry cleaners. Juan was the original owner of the dry cleaners and he and Shorty partnered in the smog testing. Shorty bought out Juan and now he and his daughter run the dry cleaners and the smog place.

Shorty was wearing a shirt that said “if it has wheels or a skirt, I can’t afford it.”

So I got my smog test done. Now I gotta pay DMV fees and I’ll be legal.

The Good and Bad Haircut, No Difference

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August 18th, 2010
So, this morning I screwed around too long. The dog got me up early and wanted out and threw the whole schedule off. Put the coffee a little late, therefore delayed the workout…..

I’m definitely a creature of habit. I had planned on going down to the Chevy dealer today and talking about a recall on the Vette. Nothing exciting, a 20 minute job. But, you know how these poop heads are they won’t make it easy on ya. You gotta drop the car off and leave it all day for the 20 minute job.

So, anyway, I decided to sand the cabinets instead, then Barbi came in and said “It’s already 85 degrees. Gonna be a hot one.” Scrub the cabinets idea.

So I decide I needed a haircut. I pulled out the clippers, cleaned out the sink, etc. Barbi says “No, you need to go get a haircut.”

So after lunch, I head out. I go to the usual place cause it’s close. I like another place better but it’s a drive and the guy that does my hair is semi retired meaning he closes whenever he decides, so ya never know if he’ll be there or not.

Anyway, I get up to the door and there’s a sign “Be back at 1:30.” It’s already one. So instead, there’s a place close to where I was (right across the street in a strip mall) and I head over there. This strip mall is situated in such a way that you almost have to drive around the block to get in from where I was. It’s a timing thing and my timing was off so I was kinda stuck in traffic and finally did drive around the block to get there. Now, I’m wishing I had just trimmed it up myself or gone down to Chuck’s (the semi retired guy) hoping he would be there.

So, I finally get in the parking lot and there’s no place to park. It’s one way and I’m not about to go back out on the street just to drive back around the block. I pull over the best I can and start backing up, making people pass me. I finally get parked and walk over to the barber shop. I walk in.

Something looks wrong, but a heat wave hit me upon opening the door and I couldn’t figure out why the hell it was so hot. When you walk in from outside, it’s supposed to hit you with cool.

A voice asked if she could help me. I look up and realize what’s different. The barber shop was now gone. The barber chairs were still there but the racks by the chairs got beauty products instead of car magazines. I say “Oh, I was gonna get a haircut.” She, a 70 year old Hispanic gal says “Come on in, we do both men and women.” I think WTF, let’s get this done.

She motions me in the chair and wraps the usual apron/ cape around me and walks off. I’m looking at this place. Someone had wall papered the cabinets and it was a real shitty job. The whole place looked like a dump and I kinda felt like I was in Tijuana or Juarez or maybe a third world country.

Then this little cute dog comes out of nowhere and jumps up on me wanting attention. I start petting him/her and think, why is it so freakin’ hot in here. Then I look up and see the lady over at the fuse panel turning one of those timers like in a tanning booth. I feel a blast of air come out of the vent above me.

So I tell this lady I’m just looking for an inch off the top and a nice taper on the sides and back. The dog goes and lays down in the corner, the lady starts on my hair and the world is good.

The air starts getting a tiny bit cooler. She is taking her time and doing a pretty good job. But, she’s very slow. What should have taken maybe 15 minutes has now run into a good half hour and I’m still hot and now I’m falling asleep.

Just when I’m thinking to myself that she may be finished, she grabs a hand full of clear goop and starts massaging it into my hair. It felt very good. Then she wipes her hands and I think she’s gonna grab the comb, but oh heck no. She goes back to the massage and boy did it feel good. Kinda reminded me of the barbers in Japan. She does a good massage. Gets the scalp, gets around the ears real good, then the neck, then the shoulders. I was stating to get worried when she finally stopped.

I’m thinking ok, let’s get the hell outa here. But oh hell nooooo, she pulls out this big flash light lookin thing and turns it on. It was an infra red massaging vibrating dildo. She pops this baby on the back of my neck. OK it felt good. I’m really getting worried now. I’m praying someone else will walk into the shop. I’ve been in there close to an hour by now.

All along, I’m making small talk, Boy, that sure is relaxing, I wish I didn’t have to go back to work and anything else that popped in my head. Plus it’s still hotter that hell in the place. I think the timer went off.

She finally finishes up and unsnaps the cape around my neck. Thank god, I can get out. Nope, now she’s gotta put shave cream around my neck and get those little hairs that was under the cape.

I was really starting to tense up again and was afraid she would start massaging again. She trimmed up the eyebrows. Finally she combs my hair again, pulls off the cape, holds up a mirror behind my head so I can see in the mirror and says “What ju thin.”

Fantastic, how much do I owe you, I gotta get back to work. She shyly says “$10” in that tone like ya know, that’s not too much is it? Jesus, that’s not bad. I gave her $12 being the generous sole I am. Hey that’s 20%! Don’t judge.

I was just glad to get outa there. As I walked out, the cool 95 degree air from outside hit me like a cool breeze. I almost ran to the car and headed home. Holy smokes, what an experience.

I got home and Barbi just gushes on how that’s probably one of the best haircuts I’ve had and how good it looks. I went up and washed the goop out and shampoo’d. Not bad, I guess. Barbi still thinks it looks good. So I started thinking, maybe I’ll go back there next time. The price was right.

Don't Judge Too Quickly

I watched this video this afternoon and read and listened to all the "outrage" from the public.




http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-deaf-shoppers-tackled,0,6097535.story

It's a shame, but don't be so fast to judge.

My Mom has a saying, "Don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what ya see."

I stopped a guy in 1992 for one of those stupid right turn only violations on Florida Ave. He pulled into Furrs parking lot and drives around, then pulls back out onto the street.

Red lights and siren, calling for failure to yield on the radio. Blood pressure shooting through the top of my head. Mind is racing like a big dog.

Finally he stops. All four doors on the car open up. The drives starts running at me while reaching inside his jacket. He came real close to being "dead right there."

Turns out, he was a deaf Canadian congressman on vacation visiting some relatives. The others all jumped out of the car to tell me he was deaf.

I mean, we're talking nano seconds to me pulling the trigger. I'm yelling stay in the car, then put your hands up, then stop, stop, stop.

He was reaching for his diplomatic passport. Ya think that wouldn't have caused some outrage. I would have been the bad guy and would have had to live with that the rest of my life.

I figured what the hay, this guy almost died, so I gave him a warning. Then I got in trouble. You mean you had to pull your gun and didn't even write the guy a ticket?

Back to this security guard. I'm sure the tackle came after a tug on the arm and some resistance.

Or maybe the security guard woke up this morning and said "Boy, I hope I get to wrestle with some deaf guy today, and ruin my whole freakin life. Maybe I'll get lucky and get fired and maybe even sued! Woohoo!"

Never be too fast to judge. That's what the courts are for.

Remember this, the media is there to SELL the news. If it doesn't create sensationalism, it doesn't sell advertisement.

Ask a newsman how much reporting he'd do if he quit getting paid. Think back over the past year. Flu pandemic, BP worst oil disaster in US history, the cops acted stupidly in Cambridge,.... and on and on....