Well, here we are. Early Tuesday morning. I worked 6 hours and left 2 hours early using 2 of my last 4 hours of personal time. I should be getting to sleep at a respectable time and hopefully getting a good nights sleep. I have already consumed 2 shots of Evan Williams Bourbon, 2 Pabst Blue Ribbons, and 2 left over chicken kabobs. Maybe a half hour more on the computer, a couple degrees cooler on the A/C, and a hot shower and I will be out for the night.
Since I started back full time working overnights at Home Depot in October occasionally I needed food for "lunch" and my only options were yucky McDonalds or Del Taco. I am not a fan of Del Taco's "Mexican" food but they have a darn good double cheeseburger. They also have a very good, polite, and always friendly night manager who works the drive through window several nights a week. I found out a few months ago when I asked him to apply for the night shift at Home Depot that he was putting himself through the Police Academy and that he wanted to be a police officer. Well, since he was spending his own money for this training I chose to not try and talk him into being a Fire Fighter instead and encouraged him, explaining that I was retired LEO myself. Well, we always had our short chats about his training or our current night at work but he did complete all his training and graduated from the academy a couple months ago. I promised him a few shoulder patches from my old department and tonight I finally gathered up a few of the different patches our department had over the years I worked there and, the hard part, I found my old business cards. I wrote "Retired" on a couple cards and put my phone number and email on one of them. I asked him to let me know where he ends up and when he is hired and trained and settled, and told him to stay safe, and I will send him a few more patches. I gave these to him after my 6 hour shift, I didn't order food I just waited in the drive through saying I didn't want anything I just wanted to give him something. (He always recognized my voice or the sound of my diesel truck) I handed over a few patches, the departments original from 1953, the "new" one they created in the mid-90's, and the newest one they created in 2003 for the departments 50th anniversary. He was appreciative and said he was having a lousy night but I just made it a good night. On my drive home he sent me a text message. He asked if I would be willing to write a letter of recommendation, based on our limited interaction at the drive through, because any recommendation from a current or retired LEO would be very helpful. ABSOLUTELY!!! I know that most all of us rarely have great customer service at the drive through, we might have someone polite or who smiles but for someone to be overly polite and friendly time and time again even when they are having a bad night is extremely rare. I really wish he would have chosen to be a Fire Fighter instead of a Police Officer but this guy will be one of the good guys.
Good morning to all ya'all, sweet dreams to me. One more night of night shift, a day off on Wednesday with a massage at 3pm to relax these old overworked muscles, then the start of my new "retirement" job on Thursday. Who wants to call me at 0700 hours Mountain time to wake me up for my 8am start time at the new place?
I guess she thinks everyone will be looking at her nails!!
