Relaxing.........

Once again sitting here in the recliner. This is pretty much where I'm at when I'm cruising the interwebs and it is almost my favorite spot in the house except for the bed. The cat is in my lap and the dog is in her crate so things are pretty mellow at the moment.

Had a good day today. Got off work this morning and came home to find the wife up cooking breakfast when I hit the door. Now, I like eating healthy as much as the next guy but sometimes a little grease in the belly really hits the spot. We like a little bacon to go with our cheese grits and that's simply how it is. Living in the South and being married to a Southern Belle means that you rapidly become fond of southern cooking and my wife is a master of it. I get treated to a variety of southern delicacies such as greens, fried okra, cornbread and some banana pudding for dessert. Being on night shift has really helped me with my waistline since I only eat two meals per day typically so I really don't pay a LOT of attention to what I eat. I eat oatmeal and whole wheat toast a lot of times for breakfast but sometimes the bacon calls me.

Anyways, got home this morning and had a wonderful breakfast with my family. Took my stepson to school and ran a quick errand before coming home to spend a little time with my wife while my mother in law took my son to preschool. Then went to bed and slept until early afternoon while my wife went shopping. We are slowly working towards getting the house fixed up in anticipation of having the appraisal done before we refinance so that is causing a few inconveniences but nothing that we can't deal with. I'll definitely be happy when we have things back to normal and running smoothly but for now I'm just glad that we're making progress.

I'm also trying my hand at gardening. My eldest stepson has been keeping a garden behind our house for the past several years and his moving out has opened up the garden patch for me to play with. I have a bunch of seeds already and am working on getting things ready for planting. I started sprouting some okra plants the other day and will probably get some tomato plants started later tonight. My mom had a gift for gardening but I've never been into it. However, summertime is fast approaching and I've decided that I really want some home grown veggies to eat so it seems the logical thing to do. I've decided to plant okra, tomatoes, watermelons and beans. Between what we get from our garden plus what my father in law's garden produces, we should be swimming in vegetables for most of the summer.

That's pretty much what's going on in my life lately. I'm going to be going to bed early tonight because I have some errands to run tomorrow. For now I'm just going to relax and enjoy a quiet evening at home.

Back again

Sitting here in the recliner enjoying a little peace before the evening begins. Things have been very busy here at the casa lately. I worked 8 nights straight last week and tonight is my only one off this week. Last week my partner and I covered 2 nights for the opposite shift so that they could go to Field Sobriety training. Our Lieutenant basically told everyone that the city doesn't have the money to pay us overtime to cover for the guys going to class. So, in order to get everyone some training, we all agreed to cover each other's shifts while we all go to class. Last week was their turn and my shift goes to the same class in early April. It's not ideal but this department has a long history of giving their officers second rate training so getting a chance to take these classes at the state training center is a really good opportunity. On top of all this, we have quarterly firearms qualification and patrol rifle class coming up in April too. This means I get to go out and make things go "BANG" on the city's dime which is always fun.

Of course working all this time means less time to spend with my family. My wife is very supportive of my job and puts up with the demands on my time from work, court and side jobs to provide everything we want. We don't have a ton of disposable income but we have enough to cover the bills, keep food on the table and sock a little into savings for a rainy day. We are slowly renovating the house and recently managed to get a new roof courtesy of our insurance company for some hail damage we got from a storm last year. We are currently trying to get the house refinanced which will free up several hundred dollars per month that we can put towards paying off our minivan or the mortgage. As a result, we've decided to dip into savings and spruce up the house a bit by fixing some problems and putting in a new walkway from the front porch to the driveway. Eventually I want to renovate the kitchen to make it a bit more user friendly. I love to cook when I actually have the time so that would be a nice thing.

My wife and I are getting along pretty well. She had to go to work today but she's getting off early so that we can go check out a new school in the area for our son to attend next year. A local church is starting up a new Christian school and we're interested in sending the kid there. The local public schools seem to be a breeding ground for thugs and delinquents so we're looking into options. The question is whether or not this new school is overly Christian. My wife and I are somewhat religious but we try to keep a balanced view on everything and we don't want our son exposed to the bible-thumping TOTALLY right-wing wackos that are very prevalent here in the bible belt. We also want a school with better academics and better resources than what is currently available in the public school system. I want my son to grow up as a normal kid and not be criminalized because he drew a picture of a gun in school. We'll see how things go tonight and make a decision soon.

In summary, I'm working way too much and busting my hump to try and make progress at work. We also had city court last week and I got to see the guy who bashed his head in my patrol car. He plead guilty to all my charges and promptly got about $3k worth of fines and lost his license for a year. I'm just trying to relax and enjoy the time off while I have it. I'm back to work tomorrow night and have a million things to do before then. I hope you are having a pleasant day because I am.