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Binoculars and a wild imagination

by | Jul 12, 2020 | Uncategorized

The next event that happened with the local police department was just a few weeks after the night incident.

My best friend who had recently gotten married after being widowed for almost seven years,
asked me to pick up her mail out of her mail box while they were on a short vacation.
I said, “sure I can do that I have done it before, no problem.”

She just lives about a quarter mile from me and it was easy to drive by quickly and pick her mail up.
When they got home I would give it all to them.
Easy thing to do for a friend, I thought it was no issue.

Only this time the neighbor… looked through her window and saw me at the mail box taking the mail out then driving away.
She immediately wrote down my license plate and yes you guessed it, she called the police department;
and told them I was stealing mail out of her neighbors mail box.
So one more time, around dinner time, we get a knock on the front door and two officers were there;
asking my husband if the white car in our driveway was mine. 
My husband said, “yes why are you asking?”
Well they said they received a report of mail theft and had to come over and check it out. 
My husband explained that she was my best friend and I was only helping her out.

I could not believe the nosy neighbor actually called the police, and they were at my door again, in less than a few weeks.
I am sure they were really beginning to wonder who Officer O’s mom really was.
Another funny moment in the life and small town in Oregon.

I call them night visitors

by | Jul 11, 2020 | Uncategorized

I called them night visitors

The next blast from the past funny moment.
The next funny moment with police officers happened just a few months after the last incident.

One night I was sitting in our family room watching a detective show.
I like criminal minds or NCIS or other detective shows like documentaries; as long as they are not too ‘gruesome’ in details.
This particular night I was in my bathrobe, and it was late around 10:30-11:00 and enjoying a glass of wine and relaxing before bed.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
I could not imagine who would be visiting this time of night.
Looking out the little hole in my door I noticed officers in uniform standing on the step.
I opened the door and saw one of them over by my garage and two of them standing before me as I greeted them in my bathrobe.
I asked them, “Can I help you?”
They said to me, “Mam we think someone is in your home; and we are here to see what is going on inside your house and make sure you are safe.”
I was shocked by what I heard because I knew it was only me and my cat and my husband who had gone to bed earlier.
They continued, “There was a 911 call from your home and we have been monitoring your open phone line and listening to conversations and we feel you are in danger perhaps there is an intruder in there with you.”
I was still shocked.
If there was an intruder wouldn’t I know it? asking myself who on earth would dial 911?
I said to them, “I will be right back”, as I shut the front door leaving them standing there waiting for the door to open again; and not knowing if I really had a bad guy observing my every move.
I rushed upstairs as fast as my slippers and bathrobe would let me, and woke up my husband asking him.
“Did you call 911?”
He was asleep and answered me in a groggy tone, “why would he do that?”
He asked me, “what was going on” and I told him “we had police at our door.”
Then I rushed back downstairs to open the door again, this time I found all three officers standing there requesting to come in to our home.
(In case this ever happens to you it is NOT good advise to shut a door on any officer of the law; especially if they think you might be in danger and especially if you have more than one.)
Of course by this time my husband was awake and downstairs inviting all officers in and we chatted about what might have happened.
The phone was set on speed dial and apparently it fell or was knocked into or whatever and it dialed 911.
There was no answer on my end of the phone of course because I didn’t know the police were there listening to it. They listened to part of the show on tv and apparently thought it was a real situation.
(no I am not making this up… it really happened.)

After chatting with them (I was still in my bathrobe) and after they realized ‘we’ were related to our son who worked at the station they left.

My husband went back to bed
and I went back to my much needed glass of wine.
As I sat down in my chair and thought about what just took place in the last half hour, I wondered what they really heard on that phone call and how long had they been listening?
Was I talking to myself??
or talking to my cat??
What on earth did they hear on the show to cause such a concern and what was I was watching?
Sure hope that never happens again.

Also I wondered what they said to each other as they left our house and what they wrote in the police report.
It must have been very interesting.
The next day I went into my work at the pharmacy and I just had to share with anyone who would listen to
another ‘adventure’ in the little home town in Oregon.

CLIP ART FOUND ON LINE FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE STORY

A bit of humor

by | Jul 8, 2020 | Uncategorized

Just because life right now is serious, scary and a bit crazy, for the next few blogs i am going to share a few funny writings i posted a few years ago.
Humor always helps.
My son is a retired police officer now so some of this doesn’t apply anymore but it is still funny.

A bit of Humor

I thought I would share a bit of humor today.
My son is a police officer and he works at the station down town where we live. He enjoys his job and enjoys the satisfaction of helping others and recently worked up to a Sergeant position. His normal job is in a district attorneys office; the police job is for continual training and to add to his resume.
I am sure it is very interesting at times for him when his mother has had a few ‘moments’ with the officers of the law in the area.
Not intentionally of course; I just happened to get in situations where we meet on occasion.
Sometimes it is with someone he knows; other times like this story he didn’t know them.

The first funny moment was during a construction period not far from the new addition to our town called the Allison Inn.
The road crews were making a round about to make traffic easier to deal with. Round abouts are circles going left or right allowing the drivers to slow down and yield depending on the direction they are going. They are often confusing and I guess they help the flow of traffic but this night, it didn’t.

I happened to have my sister in the car at the time and we were driving through the mess of the road construction and apparently I went the wrong way.
I was heading into on coming traffic driving on the wrong side of the road.
Yes I said …the WRONG side of the road… a major oops.

Now my sister noticed it first and then she quietly said, “Are you going the right way?”
I realized I was in error and tried to get where I was supposed to be, only I ended up high centered on the edge of the concrete barrier with one tire up and one tire down and I was stuck. Afraid to gun the engine and get unstuck, I stayed there a few minutes to re-think my problem.
In the mean time we notice some headlights coming my way as it was dusk and night was quickly coming upon us. The headlights were in my lane since I was in their lane. It was a bit frustrating to realize how stuck I was and cars were beginning to line up on the other side wanting to go past me.
About the time I realized I was not able to move my car forward or backward.

I noticed the first car that showed up in front of me was a sheriffs cars with headlights on top shining brightly. When the officer stopped his car he opened his door and stepped out staying behind his door and said to me in a loud voice, “Get off the road… back up and get off the road. You are blocking traffic.”
Using his bull horn to get my attention.
If you have ever heard one of those they are loud and somewhat unnerving.
Especially when someone is armed and in uniform telling you to move and get off of the road. I wasn’t sure what to do other than what he said and I was a bit afraid to move my car and hurt it. I was in quite a predicament and not sure of my next move.
Now you would have thought he could have come over to help me; or see if I was ok or to just talk quietly instead of using the mega bull horn with people watching. NO he told me to move in a very loud way and with force in his voice. “Get off the road you are blocking traffic.”
I WAS STUCK couldn’t he see that? It should have been very obvious.
After having the instructions to get off the road given to me by an officer of the law; I told my sister to hang on.
We were getting out of there.
I pressed my foot on the pedal of my car and tried to back up; then I tried to go forward and finally dropped onto the road and drove off leaving the officer in a cloud of dust with a line of cars behind him to carry on for the rest of the night.
My sister thought it was funny although she kept her comments to herself till later.
I was worried about my car and upset the officer didn’t come help me.
I asked my son about it when I got home and he said, “Mom, if I would have found you like that I would have had you walk the line.”
That’s my boy… Thanks Son.
A bit of humor from the small home town in Oregon.

The world seems to be changing

by | Jul 6, 2020 | Uncategorized

The world seems to be changing right in front of us.
Things are so very different these days, with masks on almost every face and sometimes gloves.
Social distancing is a common way to communicate now.
It is expected. It is necessary and needed but it has been hard on many levels.
Not seeing friends and family members for fear of either sharing the virus or picking the virus up.
I have been cutting my own hair. Yes it’s brave of me but I may not want to expose myself to a small salon air.
It has not been bad to stay close to home and stay pretty much away from people.
We went to a restaurant a few weeks ago after my fasting lab and it felt weird and strange.
I was not fully comfortable.
I think with all the being careful; the hand washing and the scrubbing our homes we have moved into a different world.
It feels so much more foreign and not free.
Then when you add in the chaos and violence it feels like there is a lack of safety.
I don’t feel like it’s ok to just go somewhere. You have to be careful.
There was an old guy who was attacked just because he was carrying a flag.
An American flag. He might have been a veteran and just expressing his gratitude for the country he served.
There are too many of these stories. Innocent people being in the way of violence.
Then there are those who feel the police are in the wrong now and it is a real mess.
They are getting attacked and assaulted on so many levels it is heartbreaking.
It’s hard to watch the world change around us.
Respect is no longer a normal reaction. Common courtesy is missing too.
The world is changing right in front of us and I am not sure what it’s going to take; to get us back to where we need to be.
Lord I pray for healing for our land, we know it’s needed.

Therefore as God’s chosen people

by | Jul 2, 2020 | Uncategorized

“Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
Colossians 3:12
A few years ago I was thinking about this verse and wrote a few thoughts about it.
The writer starts out with ‘therefore’.
Most pastors say, whenever this word is written, it means, now listen, pay attention, this is very important.
So we are not to miss the fact that we are God’s chosen people.
That is a wonderful promise and thought.
Not only did he choose us, he admonishes us to put on spiritual clothing so others can see Him through us.
Then the writer goes on to say, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, you are to clothe yourselves.
For me that means we have a choice to present ourselves in a way for others to see; it is purposeful.
It is an action word such as putting on a sweater or zipping up a hoodie or throwing a blanket on yourself when you are feeling cold on the couch.
So what does this really mean for us?
It is about attributes that we represent and share.
Dictionary.com says: Attribute is quality or characteristic of something (something we believe in).
SO as we get up in the morning and get ready for our day.
We can ask ourselves.
Do I want to wear the red sweater and black pants,
or do I put on compassion.
Do I want to wear the denim shirt with the denim pants,
or do I put on kindness.
Do I want to wear the soft flannel shirt with flannel pants,
or do I put on humility.
Do I want to wear the frumpy pants with the frumpy shirt,
or do I put on gentleness.
Do I want to have a dress up day and wear something fancy,
or do I put on patience.
Just as we wrap the love of the Lord around us we also choose
to wrap around ourselves his attributes.
The characteristic and quality of who He is.
It is not often natural for us to be compassionate or kind, humble or gentle; and it is not natural for us to be patient either.
It must be a choice for us.
Just as we get up in the morning and decide how we are going to look and dress for the day,
we also choose how we are going to present ourselves.
It is a heavy thought to know that what we choose; is what others see and believe about us.
I think for today, it is something for us to think about.
(this is a revision of one written in 2010 taken from the old books)