Work cars I've had.

Watching that car show, "Top Gear." Made me think about all the squad cars I've driven over the years. Thought I better make a note of them now before I forget them (since most were pretty forgettable). When I first hit the street on FTO most of the squads I drove were '82 (or thereabouts) Ford LTD Crown Victoria. Not a bad car. Not very fast, not very responsive, soft seats, pretty roomy, did the job okay. My biggest complaint that I can recall is that a few of my FTO's smoked (which bothered me terribly) and having the window cracked for the smoke caused cold air to be sucked in through the door handle freezing my leg. 

When I got off FTO I was sent straight to the midnight shift and assigned a '1984 Dodge Diplomat. I actually liked that better than those Crown Vics. The Dip had pretty good handling manners and a fair amount of power from it's 318 ci. engine. Seats were much better than the Crown Vic's too. All our squads had the speaker for the siren mounted up on the roof in the light bar so it was very noisy inside with that going.
 

Next up they got about 6 1986 Chevrolet Celebrity. Front wheel drive, no ABS, v6 motor. Looking back it wasn't a good idea to throw out a handful of front wheel drive squads to the troops with no training. These cars had terrible torque steer. They also had very bad vinyl seats. I didn't mind the car too much because it was a handful to drive and kept me busy. We only had performance summer tires on them too so terrible in the snow even with FWD.


I get a little fuzzy here but I'm thinking we got some Caprice's? I'm pretty sure I had about a 1989 one. I think this was about the best squad I had. Good handling, good power, good seats, roomy enough. I still remember one time where I had the tilt wheel up getting ready to get out. I had to turn the wheel quick and I jammed my hand on the A pillar mounted spotlight handle. Pretty sure I broke a finger on it. That really hurt. One of my Caprice's I had a interesting light bar on called the "Tomar Fast Flash." It had some very bright (for the time) strobe lights in it.



Somewhere in there we got the 4th generation Caprice (1991-1996). These were often referred to as the "bubble" or "bathtub" squads because of their shape. I hated the seats, no lumbar support whatsoever. They were low in the car and the door windows were hard to see out since we sat so low. The only thing good about the car was ABS. This was the first squad we got with ABS. It was wonderful!! Saved me bunches of times. When they rolled it out there was really no training for us. I had done enough reading about it to know how it works and what it could do. There were some high profile accidents where cops blamed the ABS. Then they came out with some minor reading article telling us how to use ABS. I believe most of the problems were caused by cops not knowing how to use ABS.


We also got a bunch of Crown Vics around 1991-1997. I liked these way more than the older LTD's. The biggest thing I can remember about these is how smooth the engines idled. It was way more comfortable than any other squad before. A lot of the time a cop spends in the squad is idling. These engines were smooth! They weren't any faster or better handling. But it sure was smooth.


We had lots of these squads over the years. My last one was a 2011. I retired in 2014 with that one. Ford quit making the Crown Vic at the end of 2011. The department decided to switch over to the Ford "Police Utility Vehicle." This was basically a Explorer modified for squad car use. I drove the Utility a few times and really didn't like the driving position. The seat is up high and you can't stretch your legs out in front. They are also very hard to see out the back windows due to structure and tinting. I was senior guy on the shift and the boss asked if I wanted a new Utility or keep my Crown Vic. I kept the Crown Vic. The Utility does have all wheel drive and active handling. But I still kept the Crown Vic. I think mine had a little over 100k miles on the clock when I left.




Some notes. When I came on the squads didn't have power windows, cruise control, and am/fm radios. The department didn't want those items to save costs. Then as time went on the manufacturers ended up charging more to have those items deleted since everybody in the world wants those items. I can't remember what squad was the first with electric windows but that sure was nice. Lots of times people flag you down and want to tell you something. The roll up windows made it pretty hard to do that when they were on the right. The midnight shifts got awful long with no music radio. Most of the guys would bring a boombox and bungy cord it to the cage. Sometimes I did but that was a hassle. Can you imagine how morale would be if they took those items out of the new squads now? Hahaha. We didn't have smart phones and internet to occupy our time back then either. I remember when I got my first pager so my wife could beep me if she wanted me to give her a call. Boy was that ever nice. My first cell phone was a Motorola DynaTac from about 1993. Pretty sure it cost me about $600. But I'm straying from this subject. Thanks for reading. Have a great day.

How about a happy story? One night I was driving my van to work the midnight shift. Warm summer night so I had my window down. I was wearing my uniform so I'm thinking I had worked an off duty job that day ( I usually didn't wear my uniform home). I worked midnights for 7 years so it was sometime between '84-'91. Crossing Snelling Ave. on Marshall I hear a loud bang sound as something hit my door, just below the open window. I kept driving so whomever threw it didn't think I would do anything about it. I drove up to the next intersection over the hill and turned north, knowing they couldn't have seen me turn there. I parked over on Carroll and walked up into the woods by the railroad bridge overpass. I spotted two guys on the bridge and they had a carton of eggs that they were throwing. I came out of the brush and shined the flashlight and yelled at them that I'm the police and they're under arrest. I handcuffed them together so they couldn't run and walked them down to the gas station at Carroll and Snelling. This was before cell phones remember. And, we didn't have radios issued to us so I had no way to communicate. I had the attendant call the police and tell them to send a squad to assist me. We tagged them for throwing objects at cars. I took a picture of the van with the egg splatter on the door. It hit about 3" below the window. I came very close to getting an egg on my uniform. If they had hit me in the face I could have easily crashed. I was rather upset with these two college boys. They had obviously had a couple of beers and thought it would be fun to pelt passing motorists, and get a little throwing practice in at the same time. I wrote a report and don't remember hearing anything about what happened after that. Well, a couple years ago I'm at a local charter middle school for wayward youth. Handling a call for some problem children. After resolving the issue the principal asks me if I have a minute to talk to him about something else. We go in his office. He says years ago he did something really stupid with a buddy when they were in college. He tells me about that incident. He said he felt so bad about it afterward and he wanted to apologize and thank me for being firm with him and catching him and treating him fairly. I almost cried (I do cry easily, but still). He said I made a profound impression on him and taught him a valuable lesson. I thanked him for thanking me. I told him no hard feelings and I'm glad everything worked out for the better. Thanks for reading.

Preserving memories of bygone times.

Driving around today listening to the radio talk about riots in Baltimore they were interviewing an ex-police chief about the Baltimore police. The guy was talking about administrators making decisions that some don't think were the right decision. Well, that got me thinking about some pretty stupid decisions that were made around my work. Don't get me wrong, I had a bunch of great bosses over the years. But, I thought it would be interesting for my grand children to see some goofy stuff too, and to see what a rebel difficult to supervise patrolman I was. I also know that my memory is not getting any better and when those memories are gone they're gone. So, how about I make a note of some of them once in awhile for some interesting reading? I'm not going to identify anybody by name. Pretty sure nobody is going to read this that will be able to figure the names out either. I intend to note all sorts of history somewhere on this blog but for starters I figured I'd note the turkey orders. How about the supervisor I had that didn't like me, period. He always seemed to find things to challenge me on. I had a pair of Rudy Project sunglasses that were given to me by Jim Ochowicz, then manager of the 7-11 cycling team. They were expensive high quality glasses. They were wrap around kind, red frames. Well, this boss certainly didn't like those glasses. He told me so. I told him there was nothing in the manual about what sunglasses we were allowed to wear. I also told him there were no sunglasses provided in our uniform allowance. I told him if he wants me to wear a particular sunglass he would have to provide them for me. And, everybody else would have to wear the exact same glasses. Since that's one of the reasons he told me I shouldn't wear them. He said they don't go with the uniform. They are "... of a garrish color that clashes with the conservative nature of our uniform." Wellllll, he sure didn't like me. So, on a day the Chief was coming to roll call to give me a commendation (for an off duty arrest) he told me to take my sunglasses off my head (I always wore them up top while inside the building and then on my eyes when going outside) before roll call. Shame on me for not following that "lawful order." I left those glasses up top, and got my award from the Chief. On a side note, the Chief handed me the letter and said, "this is a copy of the letter that will be going into your permanent personnel file, along with all the bad stuff about you." Hahahaha, that was one smooth Chief there. My wife and kids were watching. Nice huh? After roll call that boss yelled at me at the top of his lungs about my insubordination. He wrote me up and recommended suspension. I got a written reprimand for "insubordination,  failure to follow a lawful order."  Dang that hurt. I did keep wearing those same sunglasses for quite some time after that incident. My Union representative told me as far as he could tell that order was just for that particular time. He never said, "never wear those sunglasses again." That boss was rather disliked (a nice way to put it, hahaha) and retired not all that long after that incident. I had other run-ins with him. Maybe I'll relate one or two more some day. That's all for now I guess. Thanks for reading.

Summer is almost over, wow was that fast!

Well, I made it through my first summer of retirement. It sure went fast. I kept very busy with lots of little projects. Nothing major. I managed to ride my bike more miles than the past several summers. I did some jogging with Buck. I spent a week at my parent's lake home. A couple of road trips in the camper. One of my summer highlights was a four day, three night, camping trip to Lake Bylseby campground down near Cannon Falls, MN. Buck and I had a great time. Beautiful campground right on the lake. Great trail running. Buck loves to run with me but he much prefers to not have his leash clipped on. I did a couple of hard bike rides. Got to chat with a bunch of very nice people. Got a lot of reading on my Nook. But I sure did miss Paula, and Jeff. I'm liking this retirement stuff. I'm a bit apprehensive about what will happen when the weather turns sour and I can't go out biking. I might have to see about a part time job. I've got an idea for what I think would be a good one. Not going to publish it here yet though.

Jeff started school for Electrical Technology at St. Paul College. He's going to be an electrician!! Whoopie. I sure hope this works out for him. I always wanted to be an electrician so if he makes it I can live vicariously through him. I like to pick his brains when he comes home to try to pick up some of the stuff. This is going to be a great adventure for us.

Eric finished school in May and has been applying for police jobs all over the state. He's taking tests and filling out all kinds of paperwork. It's a very hard process. I think he's doing well holding up and hopefully a department will hire him.

We took a road trip to Michigan to see where the wedding will be next summer. Eric and Caitlin found a great ranch resort type place to have it. They have cabins, hotel rooms, suites, and campgrounds. Should be great. It was also very nice to spend time with her parents, Kim and Mike. They have a beautiful home on a lake. I was humbled by not being able to get up skiing. I'm going to blame it on the huge waves.

We won't be travelling to Kansas for the www.hdtrally.com this year. I've been there the last five years and it's a great get together. I'm on the board for our condominium association and have to be here for the annual meeting. So, Paula and I are planning on going camping somewhere around the middle of October here in MN, or maybe Wisconsin.

Better get going now. I'm nearing the end of "Helter Skelter, the Charles Manson Story." Gotta read a bit and go to sleep. Big day tomorrow. Don't know exactly what I'll be doing yet, but it's going to be a big day.

Thanks for reading.

Oh ya, I finally figured out how to add another link over there on the upper right. I wanted to provide an easy way to get to the camper pictures. I also added that contact form for the heck of it.

Long overdue update.

I guess I haven't been very good about updating this thing. Figured I better get some things out. Last summer we had a great time with the RV. put pretty many miles on. Went to Washington, DC, for the Police Week event. Stayed at cousins Ted & Lori's house in Vienna, VA. Spent some time at the Law Enforcement Memorial. Cried a lot. Went to the Vietnam and WWII memorials. Cried some more. Did some more camping. Due to my old age I don't remember all the details. So, let's skip to something more recent I guess.


We went back to Washington for Police Week. St. Paul lost an officer in the line of duty in 2013. Josh Lynaugh passed away while battling a suspect during an arrest. So his name was dedicated on the Wall this May. We had a large group of fellow St. Paul officers attending. It made me proud to see our group. I cried some more.


We had a great RV trip though. Stopped in Elkhart, IN, and got a new toilet for the RV. I never much cared for the old one and it was acting up so time to get rid of it. Got to see Katie, Denny, Nick, and Abbie in Cleveland. Then on to PA where we stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial. I cried. (are we seeing a theme here?) Then we spent a couple of nice days visiting with Jeff and Cindy Brett. We met them at our first HDT (Heavy Duty Truck) Rally in 2010. They're great people. I wish we could have stayed longer. On to Vienna to see Ted and Lori, and Police Week. After leaving VA to head to MN we hit a terrible traffic jam. That put us a bit behind. So, Friday I had to make some miles. Drove 700 miles that day from Maryland to Beloit, WI. The drive went very well. Paula is a great co-pilot.


Now for the biggest news. I'm retiring. 53 years old with 29.5 years of service. We went to our financial advisor and crunched the numbers and he said I could retire. So, May 27th will be my last day on the job. I'm pretty sure I'm going to cry. I still enjoy going to work. I have a great time and I think I still can do an okay job of it. But, everybody has to retire sometime. So I might as well go now while it's still fun and I can have  time to do something else. I'm planning on riding my bike a lot and spending time at my folk's lake place by Detroit Lakes.


So, that's it for now. Maybe I'll keep this thing updated a bit more now that I might have more time. Maybe not. Thanks for reading!

The Final Day!

We got to the Tire Rack and set up our tent and got a good nights sleep. Dry skid pad, I know nothing about how to drive one and Eric knew slightly more than me. Oh well. He got through it and ended up 5th overall. Then they had a great banquet awards ceremony in the warehouse. Tire Rack is a very fitting name. Rows and rows of racks and racks of tires. Paula would have had a hard time with the new tire smell. Eric got a nice trophy for 5th overall. Then we got a great surprise. They have an award for the fastest rookie! And he had that one locked up. After the banquet we got some good pictures with Chuck and Christie and our cars. Lots of thanks to them for being such nice rivals.

Some great memories. When I was packing up our tent at Motorsports Park Hastings I found a key fob for a Porsche on the grass. The autocross was going on so all the cars were crammed in waiting to make their runs. I pushed the panic button to figure out who's car it was. The horn and lights start going on the Cayenne Turbo. I watched as the driver noticed and ran over to try to shut it off. This is a raffle car so they're just driving it to generate raffle sales, it's not their personal car, so I figured he didn't know all about it. Took him awhile but he got it shut down. There were some media people near me so I told them I had found the fob and watch while I mess with the guy a bit. I waited for him to walk away and then hit the panic button again. More scrambling and he got it stopped. I waited for him to walk away and gave him a third panic. Then after he got it shut off I walked over and said, "hay, every time I push this button your lights and horn start going." He said, "hay, you messing with me?" I said, "yep, sorry I couldn't resist." 75 cars, 150+ people (some cars had three in them). Never met a one of them that wasn't nice. Had some great chats. Saw lots of the country. Brock Yates, Jr., can't say enough good things about him. He put on a world class event. He was very gracious in posing for pictures with us and always very talkative with anybody. Pretty amazing considering how busy he was taking care of everything. And, he set a very very fast pace on the transitions (I wouldn't let Eric run with him for fear of tickets).

And last, but not least, John Boos, www.boosperformance.com . Wow, he and Quinn (his top guy) built an amazing car. They worked long long late hard hours near the end to get the car ready. Everything worked flawlessly. I'm quite sure our car won the "never had anything need anything on the car" competition. Lots and lots of cars were being worked on. Cars were falling by the wayside. Not ours. 3500 miles. Not enough sleep. No good food. Watching my son drive like a pro and go for his dreams. Priceless.

Road America, Wisconsin

We made it to RA about 0630 hrs. I was completely destroyed emotionally and physically. I started talking to Christie Veth, co-driver of the Dodge Viper we were closest to in the standings, and she said how well Eric was doing and I just started crying. It had been quite the week. Eric did really well driving. There was a Viper club event going on so lots of cool track Vipers. I managed to crawl under our trailer with a sleeping bag and take a short nap. This is the last track event. Robert Dubler destroyed his Cadillac CTS-V wagon when his brakes failed going into turn 8. Very sad. He's a genuine nice guy. Glad he wasn't hurt. Another Evo blew up, no more Evo's left. Eric went off again costing him some time so at the end of the day we were tied with Chuck and Christie in their Viper. There went his chances for the 4th overall. The only event left is the dry skid pad at Tire Rack. Leaving Road America I had mixed emotions. Happy to almost be done with this odyssey. Sad that we were almost done. Looking forward to a nice easy 5/6 hour drive to the finish in South Bend, Ind.