Sometimes you just shake your head

   So recently we were "volun-told" that a few of us would be making an appearance at one of our local housing projects "police community day."  Keep in mind that this is the sort of project that strongly dislikes the police in general, that is a high crime and drug area, and just generally isn't a great place to hang out in. It was clear well in advance that the majority of attendees would be there for free food or giveaways, and not really interested in better community/police relations unfortunately. But, the politicians had decreed to the administration had decreed to us... so off we went on a Saturday. My role there was to hang out for a couple of hours with the vehicle and me visible, and to do a dog demonstration for the attendees at some point. Which brings us to the amusement phase of things...

   Keep in mind that for the vast majority of people (particularly on the thuggish end of things) there are only two sorts of police dogs they think of - patrol dogs, which chase and bite people; and drug dogs, which do the obvious. The fact that we have bomb dogs rarely if ever comes to mind unless you specifically point it out to them. And, I won't deny there have been a few times I might have let people presume one thing when talking to them - but that's a separate story.

   Anyway, here I was on my day off, and all set for my demonstration outside. A five minute talk about the dog, show him finding something and that was the plan. So they make the announcement inside that there is a dog demo outside, and a small crowd of attendees wanders out to watch. And, as soon as I turn and start walking towards the group and they see my partner is a Labrador retriever, and obviously NOT a patrol dog - literally 80% of them turn around and make a beeline back inside. Not even subtly moseying - it was blatantly obvious that they didn't want to be anywhere near that detector dog. Even the upper staff who were there noticed and were dumbfounded. As I just laughed and let my boss know that was pretty much what I had expected to happen...

   And if this doesn't tell you something about the state of things than nothing will.

Just some bits...

- Still a work in progress, but I'm ok. Good days & bad but overall I'm in a better place than a few months ago.

- Finally took a couple of afternoons this week and did some serious yardwork I've been neglecting for years. Trimmed trees and bushes, raked up old crap and all that - and that's just the front yard. Now to slowly tackle the back.

- While "grilling season" never really ends here, with the warmer weather it has become more frequent and also involves letting the kids eat outside on the repaired picnic table as well as marshmallow roasts. To say they are happy is a big understatement.

- Have a birthday coming up this week - not sure yet what I think about that. But at least I made it another year.

Anyway, still alive here. Maybe have something to write soon but felt it needed an update.