I just finished wrappng the last of the presents, a few little ones and one pretty hefty one. I can tell you that lugging the weight bench in from the garage to the cellar, where I planned to assemble it, was almost hernia producing as it slipped when I tried to take it down the stairs. Once down there, I opened the box to assemble the bench, but when I read the directions I saw it requires some wrenches in sizes I do not have. So back up the stairs it went to lie in its box next to the Christmas tree where I draped a piece of wrapping paper over it (why waste the paper trying to wrap a box that big)! I would have had my son help me with it earlier, except of course since it is for him. That was it; so then I boomed out a hearty Ho-Ho-Ho (as I do each Christmas in the early AM, yes it is Christmas here already).
All done, I decided to pour myself a nightcap in the form of a dollop of Glenlivet on the rock (one big ice cube, so no not on the rocks). I am enjoying that between keystrokes right now. I needed it, and I do not usually say I needed a drink. It was a long but pretty nice day with the wife's mom and brothers over; and we also had three family friends over too, plus my daughter's boyfriend. Great food, lots of holiday cheerfulness, and a little holiday tension, but nothing major.
Today was the first Christmas Eve on which I did not go shopping in memory for many years. I cannot remember not shopping on Christmas Eve ever since I was about 8 or 9 years old or so. Oh well, I will resume the tradition next year.
I guess that is it for now, except to say again:
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL, whoever you are, I hope you enjoy a merry day today.
All the best,
Glenn B
Sunday, December 24, 2006
A Sad Christmas Season Story, SFPD Officer Killed
At 0001 hours (12:01 AM), one minute into Christmas Eve, life support was removed from San Franciso Police Department Officer Bryan Tuvera. He was just 28 years old, and was a four year veteran of the SFPD.
He was shot, apparently on December 23rd, while trying to arrest Marlon Ruff. Ruff was a fugitive who had escaped, two years ago, from a minimum security facility, reportedly after having been convicted of robbery, and after having been convicted, previous to the robbery, on firearms charges. At the time of the robbery years ago, Ruff reportedly already was out on probation for the firearms crime. Yet, despite his becoming a repeat offender, despite a robbery conviction after a previous firearms conviction, he was in a minimum security prison camp. Amazing how criminals are allowed to walk, or are placed into minimum security facilities with multiple convictions on their records. I think it is time to get tough on criminals, especially on repeat felony offenders, and violent felons, and treat them like the dirtbags I beleive them to be. Let them do hard time for a long time. Letting them out on the street, or trying to rehabilitate them, or incarecerate them them in minimum security work camps just seem not to work, and all too often can lead to tragedies like this one.
Now though, Ruff will walk no more, nor will he ever escape again. This is thanks to Tuvera's partner who returned fire, and hit Ruff several times. Ruff died at the scene. As regards to Ruff, if the article reported it correctly, I can only say: good riddance; and good shooting to Officer Tuvera's partner.
More info can be found in this article: OFFICER WAS SLAIN BY ESCAPEE 2 YEARS ON THE RUN: Prison-camp fugitive died in S.F. garage after killing policeman. Read the article here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/24/MNGFHN5GCR1.DTL.
My hearfelt condolences go to the family, loved ones, and fellow officers of Officer Tuvera.
He was, and remains, our brother behind the shield.
With heavy heart,
Glenn B
He was shot, apparently on December 23rd, while trying to arrest Marlon Ruff. Ruff was a fugitive who had escaped, two years ago, from a minimum security facility, reportedly after having been convicted of robbery, and after having been convicted, previous to the robbery, on firearms charges. At the time of the robbery years ago, Ruff reportedly already was out on probation for the firearms crime. Yet, despite his becoming a repeat offender, despite a robbery conviction after a previous firearms conviction, he was in a minimum security prison camp. Amazing how criminals are allowed to walk, or are placed into minimum security facilities with multiple convictions on their records. I think it is time to get tough on criminals, especially on repeat felony offenders, and violent felons, and treat them like the dirtbags I beleive them to be. Let them do hard time for a long time. Letting them out on the street, or trying to rehabilitate them, or incarecerate them them in minimum security work camps just seem not to work, and all too often can lead to tragedies like this one.
Now though, Ruff will walk no more, nor will he ever escape again. This is thanks to Tuvera's partner who returned fire, and hit Ruff several times. Ruff died at the scene. As regards to Ruff, if the article reported it correctly, I can only say: good riddance; and good shooting to Officer Tuvera's partner.
More info can be found in this article: OFFICER WAS SLAIN BY ESCAPEE 2 YEARS ON THE RUN: Prison-camp fugitive died in S.F. garage after killing policeman. Read the article here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/24/MNGFHN5GCR1.DTL.
My hearfelt condolences go to the family, loved ones, and fellow officers of Officer Tuvera.
He was, and remains, our brother behind the shield.
With heavy heart,
Glenn B
A Different Type of Christmas Story...
...has unfolded due to the men and women of the United States Postal Service. As you all are probably aware, Colorado and Wyoming were socked with a blizzard that dumped feet of snow on them over the past few days. Because of the snowstorm, lots of things got backed up, like the airlines who cancelled all flights in the areas, the roads that were buried under feet of snow, the stores that just did not open, and so on. It was a bad blizzard. One of the other things that got badly backed up was the mail. There was just no way to make deliveries of packages that had not even arrived in the area yet due to no air service, and local deliveries were hampered also.
So what to do in a situation like that? Well the post office asked for volunteers, to deliver mail on a Sunday. Sunday deliveries are a very unusual thing indeed, at least nowadays. What made it even more unusual, of course, is that the particular Sunday for those deliveries is today - Christmas Eve 2006. So what do you think happened? Did they get a few volunteers to deliver the 300,000 packages that arrived in Colorado and Wyoming on this Saturday? No they did not!
I guess I could not blame anyone for not volunteering to work on Sunday, no matter what your religion, if only because it is usually a day off. Furthermore, I could not blame anyone who did not want to work on Christmas Eve either. I mean, how could I, or you, find fault with anyone for wanting to have this day off. So instead of getting a few volunteers to deliver the backed up, and soon to be late for Christmas mail, what did the post office get? They got 1,500 postal employee volunteers to deliver the mail, that is what they got. Whether they are getting overtime or not, can you imagine that!
Fifteen hundred postal service employees volunteered to in essence play Santa's helpers to get the delayed holiday mail delivered on time. According to the article 1,500 Mail Carriers Work on Christmas Eve to Deliver Blizzard-Delayed Packages in Colorado and Wyoming , found at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,238680,00.html, one of the mail carriers, Robin Smith, even delivered a big package addressed to GRANDMA.
I tell you it chokes me up while I write about it. I think it will be a while before I complain about the U.S. Postal Service again! My hat, and my heart felt wishes for a wonderful holiday season, go out to the men and women of the U.S. Postal Service, today they certainly lived up to their image as seen in The Miracle On 34th Street when they delivered the mail into the courtroom and helped prove Kris Kringle was Santa Claus. Sure that was only a movie, but who would have ever thought the Postal Service doing such a nice thing, as what they did today, would happen in real life. Just wonderful, that’s what it is, just wonderful!
Merry Christmas to each and every U.S. Postal Service employee; no matter if you celebrate Christmas or not, I just truly hope each of you has a merry day tomorrow, especially all of you who volunteered to do this really nice thing.
Merry Christmas,
Glenn B
So what to do in a situation like that? Well the post office asked for volunteers, to deliver mail on a Sunday. Sunday deliveries are a very unusual thing indeed, at least nowadays. What made it even more unusual, of course, is that the particular Sunday for those deliveries is today - Christmas Eve 2006. So what do you think happened? Did they get a few volunteers to deliver the 300,000 packages that arrived in Colorado and Wyoming on this Saturday? No they did not!
I guess I could not blame anyone for not volunteering to work on Sunday, no matter what your religion, if only because it is usually a day off. Furthermore, I could not blame anyone who did not want to work on Christmas Eve either. I mean, how could I, or you, find fault with anyone for wanting to have this day off. So instead of getting a few volunteers to deliver the backed up, and soon to be late for Christmas mail, what did the post office get? They got 1,500 postal employee volunteers to deliver the mail, that is what they got. Whether they are getting overtime or not, can you imagine that!
Fifteen hundred postal service employees volunteered to in essence play Santa's helpers to get the delayed holiday mail delivered on time. According to the article 1,500 Mail Carriers Work on Christmas Eve to Deliver Blizzard-Delayed Packages in Colorado and Wyoming , found at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,238680,00.html, one of the mail carriers, Robin Smith, even delivered a big package addressed to GRANDMA.
That is not all either. Tomorrow, 500 postal employees will continue to deliver mail in the blizzard struck area. That will be on Christmas day!"Smith said one elderly woman was overwhelmed when she knocked on her door and handed her a package.
"She looked very lonely and her car was buried" in snow, Smith said. "She was like, 'I didn't know I would see this.' I gave her a great big one. It was to 'Grandma.""
I tell you it chokes me up while I write about it. I think it will be a while before I complain about the U.S. Postal Service again! My hat, and my heart felt wishes for a wonderful holiday season, go out to the men and women of the U.S. Postal Service, today they certainly lived up to their image as seen in The Miracle On 34th Street when they delivered the mail into the courtroom and helped prove Kris Kringle was Santa Claus. Sure that was only a movie, but who would have ever thought the Postal Service doing such a nice thing, as what they did today, would happen in real life. Just wonderful, that’s what it is, just wonderful!
Merry Christmas to each and every U.S. Postal Service employee; no matter if you celebrate Christmas or not, I just truly hope each of you has a merry day tomorrow, especially all of you who volunteered to do this really nice thing.
Merry Christmas,
Glenn B
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