Fire for Pride!

Arizona Wallow fire has been burning up the dry brush since May 29^th. New Mexico has been basking in the ashes and smoky haze since June 2^nd. (Maybe June 1^st...I can’t remember when it reached us)



from krqe

The conditions in the middle of the state are only getting worse. I’ll take the ash and smoke over a fire destroying everything I’ve ever known. I don’t know if the Wallow fire went through communities already, but I know it took out vacation homes and is encroaching on small towns now.

awesome sunset (pic from krqe)

So let’s see. The east has tornadoes, the middle section has floods, and the southwest is on fire. Is there volcanic activity in the west yet? That would round out the disasters. Or a tsunami or something. (I certainly hope this does NOT happen, but I can’t always be optimistic. I think I’ll start asking friends to move out of the west coast now...)

from krqe

It isn’t all bad. I can’t be outside, my house is a warm 98F degrees without the swamp cooler on, I can’t use the swamp cooler because it blows the outside air into my house, I can’t have the windows open to get that cool evening breeze, and my house remains a stifling 90+ hell, but my allergies have yet to react to the smoke! See? Silver lining. There’s always a lining of silver somewhere.

Writing:

I’ve also managed to write at least ten sentences in that final scene that has been blocking me for over a month! It took two nights to write those, but it offers me some hope it might be finished by July. I wish I understood why my mind shuts down when I try to finish that WIP. Do I not want it done? Do I hate that scene this much? Maybe I know it’ll go off to be a submission and I fear rejection? Ah. I need a shrink in the house!

Citizen Police:

Tonight I’m attending my first citizen police academy alumni meeting. I have no idea what tonight’s class is but the classroom offers air conditioning so I am so there! The police have been involved in a lot of shootings lately, and I’m hoping they discuss it tonight. The news stations are all over the stories and I don’t trust the reports. From experience, the news warps the details to make the police a bad guy. (Sometimes the police are in the wrong, but not as often as the news would make you believe.)

Pride:

If I remember on Saturday (Pride day! Whoo!) I’ll post a six-sentence-Sunday from the WIP I’m finishing soon. And next week (or Sunday) I’ll post photos from Pride! My gay-bf asked me for fashion advice. (The irony was not lost on me) My advice was a banana hammock and a sign for deposits and withdraws. He informed me that on Pride weekend, signs are unnecessary. I promised him a box of condoms for his Price present. I won’t forget the lube.

The end of CPA

My Citizen Police Academy is ending on Thursday. It's been a long 13 week course and I have loved 90% of it. I had respect for officers before, but this course has tripled that respect. I won't get on my soap box about police and the public, but I will say that too many don't see police as human...I didn't even realize how I disconnected them from Average Joe until after this course.

Anyway. I think getting some free time will help me get my writing flow back. I'm already writing again but I need to get some sex scenes down! I'll get on that soon. Soon. I have one in the works that is a rewrite of an unpublished work that I hold close to my heart and want to finish it with the love it deserves. I would love to see it published. We'll see.

Hayley Got Herself Tasered

There I was in the back of the prisoner transport unit fighting another inmate with tooth and nail. He grabbed me in a head lock. I clawed at his face. Then unbelievable pain coursed through both our bodies. We were left stunned and without fight left in us.

No. I didn’t actually get into a fight. Last night at Citizen Police Academy we learned about Use of Force, which included taser guns. For the demonstration, I (as the only female volunteer!) was positioned beside a classmate. He put me in a headlock and the taser wires were split—one on my shoulder and one on his opposite shoulder. We both felt the full glory of this device.

It was my first (and hopefully last) experience with a taser gun and at the capable hands of a police academy instructor that tasers a lot of cadets and officers requalifying to carry the weapon. (Not to mention his history of tasering criminals while a patrol officer)

Let me tell you in all honesty, it hurt. (That’s big shocker (haha) to hear, right?) I have accidentally electrocuted myself through means of light sockets, dismantled appliances, and damaged cords, but I’d take all of those over another taser gun hit. If I hear that taser gun sound again I might curl up into a ball of fear and pain.

Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I might only cringe at the sound of a tasering, then laugh gleefully while the bad guy spasms. It certainly hurt but the moment the trigger was released, the “dear god stop the police officer from doing this” pain went completely away.

Unlike in novels and movies, I did not pass out. I did not lose memory. I did not pee myself. The shock clenches every muscle in your body. But your heart and brain will continue about their daily, normal operation. (With the added “holy shit this hurts” memo from your brain, kindly asking you to stop whatever it is that causes such pain.)

Have you ever pulled on your fuzziest pair of socks, danced across some carpet, and tapped the shoulder of a friend? That static shock leaves a tingle in your fingertip for a moment, right? (If you haven’t done this in a dry climate in the winter, I highly suggest a trip to NM in January to experience this because it’s fairly amazing in my opinion. Despite my static-self shocking everything I come in contact with all winter, I still think it’s cool.) My hand had rested on the back of my partner during the shock and had the tingle of a static shock well after the demonstration had ended.

I also got a welt on my shoulder where the instructor taped the wire to me. (The wire is usually attached to the body by a point that stabs into you, but luckily that was not part of this learning experience. Those points have to be removed by trained EMTs.)  The welt went away completely by the time I got home so I have no lasting signs from a taser gun.

A big thank you for the officers volunteering to stay late and talk to the students of the Citizen Police Academy! I wouldn’t have allowed myself to be tasered if it wasn’t at the hand of a profession while other professionals stood nearby.