Recently we decided to sell our travel trailer. On November 17th I picked up the trailer so we could clean it up and deliver to the new owner on November 19th. This would lead to a series of events that would leave me laughing and a felon in jail.
On November 18th Natalie was cleaning out the trailer. I always check that every door, storage compartment, everything is locked up when I'm done. Well this night I didn't check the back door on the trailer so it got left unlocked all night.
When I woke up on the 19th I had Blink motion alerts on my phone. I checked thinking it would just be another dog or passerby but there was someone on my driveway at 05:22 and they walked over to my car window, looked in with a flashlight, then checked my door handle. I don't know why, maybe they thought someone was inside, or maybe they tried the front door but not the back, but they passed on the unlocked back door on the trailer and went to the next house. The thing that stuck out with this moron was the bright red shoes.
The first thing I did was go to the Anthem Stuff page on Facebook and posted a BOLO. Within a couple minutes people were posting that the same guy was going through their courtyards to their front doors. One person posted a picture and it was the same guy, in his bright red shoes.
Another person chimed in that I should file a police report but I thought too much work for nothing. I tried to do it online but it was ridiculous. The questions were just dumb so I gave up.
At around 08:45 I was getting ready to hookup the trailer but I realized Natalie left me an almost empty tank. I could go 39 miles or something, but I was towing and had to go 15 or so miles and I don't like running on empty. I was annoyed and decided I needed to get gas. I was going to go to the Chevron but there was construction and it was a pain to get into. So I went to Circle K.
I pumped where the red arrow in the picture below is. Facing away from the street. The whole time I'm pumping I'm looking at everyone and their shoes, thinking there's no way I'm going to see these red shoes. Despite my skepticism I continue to look at everyone's shoes. I finished pumping gas and pulled away from the pump. Then I'm at the green arrow and I see a guy coming out from the alley where the blue arrow is and he's wearing bright red shoes. I'm thinking no effing way. What are the odds? I mean another 10-15 seconds and I would have missed him.
I follow him while I rollup the windows and call 911. As I'm calling I'm thinking, what if I'm wrong? The guy in the video was in all black with an Under Armor hoodie and a blue face mask. He was covered head to toe so I couldn't see anything else. This guy had a tan flannel on and had long hair. I kept looking him up and down and he looked like a complete dirt bag that was up to no good so I decided to take my chances. It was close enough, minus the flannel.
I followed him to the Brake Masters where the white arrow is and parked in front of Discount Tires, where the yellow arrow is. I tell dispatch I'm 95% sure this is the guy that was trying to break into houses and cars earlier and they need to get there right away. She asked if I'll wait for police and I told them sure. Gave them a description of my truck and told them where I am parked. I sat there watching the Brake Masters for a good 20-30 minutes and no police. I started getting really anxious. The whole time I'm thinking what if I'm wrong? What if I'm sitting here for nothing? What if if the police don't show up? So I call back again and I tell her I have things to do and no one has shown up. I asked if she had an ETA. Just as she is getting ready to transfer me to a supervisor not one, but two Phoenix police SUVs show up. I take off the gun strapped on my hip and I go over to the one closest to me and show him the video. He asked if you can see him pull on my car handle and I confirmed I can clearly see it. He accidently rolls up my arm in the window and apologizes and then says, let me see that video one more time.
At this point the cop decides he's going to question the guy. He tells me to stay put and they both go into Brake Masters. I'm just sitting there hoping I'm not wrong. The police SUVs are between me and the Brake Masters so I can't see what is going on inside. But then 5-10 minutes later out of the corner of my eye I see this guy running back towards the Circle K with police in pursuit. My first thought is awesome, I made the right call, this is the guy. He eats it in the parking lot and the cops hop on him tasing him. They tell him to stop resisting and he keeps crying like a little bitch that he's not resisting and he's innocent. Everyone in Brake Masters had come out and they were taking video so I started walking over. This is when I see he had ditched the flannel. As he looks up there he is in the black Under Armor sweater and the blue mask.
I talked to the police and they told me this guy ran because he had multiple felony warrants. They told me I could press charges for attempted burglary but it's probably not even worth wasting my time since he's going away for a while. They told me he had felony drug warrants, a felony warrant for escaping, and others. He was just coming off a drug high when they caught him. I asked the employees if he worked there and they said no, he just came in to use the phone. I have no idea what happened in those 20-30 minutes but he was hanging out there long enough for police to show up.
I don't know who was happier about this. The police got a guy off the street with felony warrants and just 4 hours after this guy tried to break into my car he was in cuffs and I was watching him cry like a bitch that they are too tight. It really made my day. I just couldn't believe how this whole situation was wrapped up like a Christmas present and thrown right at me while pumping my gas. Absolute perfect timing on this one. All of this because he decided to wear some bright ass red shoes.
October has always been my favorite month of the year, no matter where I live. In Riverside it was good weather, in Florida it was the end of the humidity, and here in Arizona it's the end of hell and it's leaf season in the high elevations.
Every year I want to go leaf hunting but there's always something stopping me from having a good leaf hunt. One year were were in Miami when the leaves were at their prime, then another year my Elk Hunt, etc. This year again we missed the leaves in their prime by only a couple days, but we still had a decent hike. They were probably at their prime while we were in California for my birthday. Then when we came back we had a wind storm blow half the leaves off the trees, just 2-3 days before we went to the rim. Next year there will be nothing getting in my way. Our priority will be finding leaves before they all fall.
A few years back I went hiking with a coworker in the Barbershop Springs. Even though all the trees were bare at that time (November) I figured this would be a good spot to do some leaf hunting. So this is where I took the family for our leaf hunt. We hike a total of about 3 miles that day, found some decent spots to take some pictures, and had a pretty good time. This area is pretty diverse with pine, hardwood, and even some blue spruce.
Zach ended up hiking back to the truck with his entire beanie filled with rocks.
As I mentioned in my last post, a couple months ago the kids were being real turds one day so they got stuck doing chores while I had a couple cocktails. A few weeks before I was sick and I felt like I had pneumonia for the first time in my life. I had to call in sick two days from work, something I have never done, due to the fact I was up all night with fluid in my lungs. My recovery after just sucked. I was tired all the time and then when I had those cocktails in August I set off my stomach. I felt like I had pancreatitis or something, then an infection all over for a week or two after that. I was drinking almost 2 gallons of water a day trying to flush everything out. So I decided it's time for change.
In late August I stopped having a beer every night at dinner, stopped drinking Dr. Pepper, and started going back to the gym. It's actually the longest I've ever gone without soda. I had my first DP just this week, after 3 months. Not a single soda in 3 whole months!
I decided 40 was going to be better than 39. The problem is every time I try working out I end up hurting a couple weeks in, due to my lumbar fusion. So this time about a week in I went to GNC and got some bcaa, protein, creatine, omega 3,6,9 and some other stuff. It helped a lot. A year ago my elbow would be on fire after working out and I couldn't touch anything with it. Getting into bed would hurt like hell because I used my elbow. Well all these supplements helped out and I was able to keep going. Between August and Oct 7th, I went from 205 to 188, and that is with a lot of muscle gains. I was pushing myself really hard the closer I got to 40. I had two parties planned and I didn't want to show up with a gut.
My first party was in Arizona, with my friends. Natalie and Adri made me a Song of The Blackest Bird cake. Song of The Blackest Bird is one of the best metal songs ever written. A song about Finnish folk lore, the black bird calls people to their death. What better cake to represent half my life gone?
Those who hear it will bow their heads Those who hear it will find no rest And black as a dream is now their way For into the shades they all shall fade
I think it's obvious, in a lot of ways Adri is the most like me of my kids.
I normally don't take my birthday off from work but this year I did. Natalie and I went shooting a couple miles from here while my Vaca Frita simmered in the crock pot for dinner. A damn near perfect day. No work, shooting while looking at that hot Dominican butt, and Vaca Frita for dinner.
Still having trouble with my AK-74 jamming. Going to have to rip this one apart.
My favorite handgun. Remington R1 Enhanced 1911.
The day after my birthday we went out to California for another party. I call this party Cassandra's party, with side kick Joe. We had family, all my sister's friends, and my one friend left in California. They decided to do a costume party but I didn't want to. I had been working my ass off and I just wanted to show up as me, and that is what I did.
We had a bunch of 80's candies at the party and I found these bad boys. Only problem is these ones didn't puff the powdered sugar smoke like the ones we got from the ice cream man.
After the party we got another reminder of California going down the toilet. This part was a my sister's friend's multi-million dollar home, not an exaggeration. Their home is insane and they had a Ferrari or two in the garage. We get about a mile from their house and there's a guy jacking off on the side of the road. Living the California dream.
This was the mildest summer we have had since I moved here. Last year was awful, it was hot and didn't rain. This year it was almost closer to Riverside daytime highs than our normal Phoenix weather and we had the most rain we've had in several years.
It was my first summer in 3 years not having school so we went to the community center water park almost every week. We went so much the kids got bored of it. Story about that below with the pictures.
In early summer Natalie and I got a babysitter for the day and went up to Sedona. This was before the rain started and the fires were bad so everything was shut down. I wanted to do some hiking but we couldn't because the trails were closed. I wanted to go to restaurant we had never been to but they required reservations. So we went to our normal spot, El Rincon instead, this being the first time without the kids. Of course, they were out of their most popular margarita, the prickly pear. We went back last week and I finally tried it and it's the only thing I have ever liked with tequilla.
Some pictures from my balcony during a thunderstorm.
A couple months ago we took the kids bowling at Bowlero. This bowling alley is getting high tech. No longer need two lanes to play with the kids so they can have bumpers. Bumpers are set by player and they go up and down automatically. The kids hated it at first but eventually came around to it. The kids were laughing when Natalie got a strike doing the granny bowl.
Adri learned how to granny bowl and started enjoying it.
Zach trying to be Mr. Cool while his ball goes down the lane.
Dean was the one kid that liked bowling from the start.
We had a casualty this summer. I was on my balcony one weekend watching a thunderstorm thinking it would really suck if the neighbors palo verde blew over. Well a week later it happened. I didn't even hear the wind that night but we came out in the morning to a downed palo verde. Our yard will never be the same. That tree shaded the entire trampoline area.
This is a new drink I created. I grow prickly pear in my backyard and had my first crop this year of a whoppin 6 fruits. I juiced them then created a cocktail with gin, triple sec, vodka, lime rum, spiced rum, simple syrup, and ginger beer. Then I put that in an ice cube tray and froze it. Due to all the liquor it doesn't freeze hard. So then I take out the cubes and put it in a cup with some limonade juice and it gets all slushy. Really good drink.
In July my niece moved back to Colorado so the family came out for the weekend. First time we've had all of us siblings at my house. We had some of my new prickly pear cocktail, went to the water park, and the girls came my dad a little bit of a beard trim.
In the first week of August I told the kids to get ready so we could hang out at the water park. They told me the water park was boring. I absolutely lost my ****. My kids have so much compared to when I was growing up. I had to find friends with a pool or play baseball in 100 degrees when I had nothing to do. They have a pool in their backyard and access to a water park whenever they want but it's boring. So I made myself a cocktail, or two, or three. I really don't remember. I just remember they did a few hours of chores to learn what boring is while I yelled out commands and drank my cocktail. From this day on when I said we are going to the water park they ran for their shoes.
Boring waterpark.
Adri is going through the phase where even when it's 110 degrees she wants to wear a sweater. I got sick of her in the ugly Walmart sweater so I forked out $90 bucks on the best sweater on the planet. The Insomnium Song of The Blackest Bird sweater.
The boys playing in the rain.
Decided to take the kids hiking in the rain one even at the New River wash. This wash is normally dry but when it rains it can be a couple hundred feet wide.
Dean loves coffee for some reason and is always begging for it. Every once in a while I give in and let him have some coffee with me.
Zach finally cut the mop off his head.
One of my favorite things to do once it cools off. Hiking in the New River wash.
Gavilan Peak.
My favorite new hat. Let's go Brandon.
Work sent me a new monitor covered in bubble wrap. Dean said he didn't have anything to do. OK, problem solved.
Dean couldn't find his "Percy" train.
I started going back to the gym. I'm on the elliptical one morning and I see this. A guy swimming with a face shield on. Humans are just getting too stupid for me to deal with.
