Slammed!

After an abnormally quiet July, that ended on the dullest note possible, we made up for it today!

Today was the busiest day I have ever seen. If I thought we had gotten slammed before, I hadn't seen nuthin' yet. Today, it was one right after another.

I handled two calls in the lobby of headquarters right after roll call, before I ever hit the street. I handled a stranded motorist and stopped a car. All this within the first hour. Then we really started getting hit. It was domestic after domestic. Suspicious vehicles and burglaries. Lost property. Shoplifter in custody. Return trips on two of the domestics.

Dispatch was getting upset with me, because if I'm not doing anything, and I'm close to a call, I'll jump it. It can make for a tiny bit of confusion in there, when they have to switch everyone around. But like I tell them, "I'm not afraid of a report call. And it beats searching for something to do. Especially if I'm close by."

I made two trips to the jail tonight. The second with a "delta." The male half of a domestic was on a manic-depressive roller coaster ride. The first time we went out there, we just didn't have anything to charge him with. We took bets on how long it would take until we got called back out there. My bet was 90 minutes. I missed it by only a few minutes. The second time, he showed his butt by standing in the front yard and screaming cuss words. So I locked him up for Disorderly Conduct. He beat his head on the driveway after I handcuffed him. Then again on the cage in my patrol car. He had finally calmed down by the time we got to the jail, but I decided I didn't want to fight him, so I let the deputies take him out of the car. He came out of his fog enough to realize he was out-numbered, and cooperated.

I tried a couple of times to sneak over to Starbucks. (It's just outside the city limits, so it's not like I could just swing by.) Every time I got about halfway there, here came another call. I gave up.

I finally got to eat dinner after 10 o'clock. We were still getting calls, but it had slowed down a little. I was already four reports in the hole. Fortunately, they were nothing earth-shattering and I was able to knock them out between those last few calls.

Everyone said it was ALL my fault. I had been bemoaning yesterday's mind-numbing boredom. Even Mr. Traffic himself - Mike - wasn't able to find anything to stop last night. I had such a bad case of ass-fatigue, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to walk into the house. I didn't sign on for that kind of boredom. If I wanted boredom, I could have continued to sit in my air-conditioned office and look at the same four walls for fun.

But like I responded to everyone tonight who accused me of jinxing them, I wasn't complaining! I was jumping calls, even the ones that required reports.

Cynthia showed up at the house before I went to work. She was complaining about her financial and living situation. I knew it was coming... She called me while I was on my way to one of the calls. Asked if she could move back in. I told her, "No." She begged me to come by tonight to talk. I told her she could meet me at the house after I got off. She was here when I got here.

She is still wanting to come back home. I'm still telling her, "No." But I did tell her, since she has been suspended from work for a week for being tardy, she can use that time to come over here and start de-grossifying her old bedroom. And I told her that, while this in no way constitutes an affirmative response to moving back in, she can express to me how badly she wants to come back by how well she cleans up that room. It still looks the same as the day she left; I haven't had time to deal with it.

However this one works out... Wish me luck!