The Journey of the Archer

October 30, 2013

Jim Reeves Personal , , , , , , 1 Comment

archerThat’s as good a title for this dream as any, I suppose, although all I was doing was trying to get to someplace just past the horizon.  Why I needed to be there, I don’t know, but I was determined.

I seldom remember my dreams when  I wake, and when I do it’s usually just an emotional memory, lacking details.  I do recall that recently they have been either scary or upsetting, but what they consisted of I have no idea.  This morning’s was different.

I don’t know if this dream was influenced by the book I recently read, Legacy, A Father’s Tale, or by my enjoyment of the television series Arrow, but I was apparently an archer.  I was carrying a bow, a bit more modern than the one in the image above, and I was dressed in a manner that combined elements of modern clothing and this archer’s garb.  I don’t remember having a quiver of bows on my back, however.

The journey takes place today, or very nearly so, and I’m trying to get from wherever I am, presumably Visalia, first to a point on the other side of Ivanhoe.  But things are different.

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Soft touch? or expanding horizons?

October 20, 2013

Jim Reeves Personal 1 Comment

legacy_fatherSaturday afternoon, after getting a picture taken at a photo shoot for The Self Evident Truth Project, I decided to wander down Main Street and see the sights.  As I exited the Garden Street Plaza and started heading west on Main Street, I noticed there was an arts street festival in progress, and I thought I might stroll over and take a look.  As I headed along the sidewalk,  I was approached by a man who wanted to tell me about the book he wrote.

Usually, that’s a sign to me to continue walking, and respond only with a polite “no thanks”.  No telling what “his book” would be about… maybe a government conspiracy to use contrails to spray something on unsuspecting Americans, or maybe how the Masons are secretly in control of Visalia.  You just never know with someone approaching you on the street.   This time, however, I stopped and listened.   He had his two kids with him, so I figured it was probably OK to see what he had to say.  And I could see the dragon and the boy holding a sword on the cover, so I was a bit intrigued.

What could it hurt, right?  Maybe it was time to expand my horizons.

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Workin’ the OT

October 4, 2013

Jim Reeves 9-1-1, geek, Personal , , , , 1 Comment

10-4-2013 Tulare County Sheriff’s Dispatch, Channel 1, south end of Tulare County.

jim_at_work_10042013

The ‘Trophy Wall’ has an addition

September 28, 2013

Jim Reeves Gay, News, Personal, Pictures , , , , Leave a comment

vtd_hate_article

On Saturday, September 21, 2013, the local newspaper, The Visalia Times Delta, published in the print edition an article I wrote on September 18 and posted to my blog “Alternating Currents” (where I post as one of three community bloggers on their website.  You can read “Hate in a small town” here).  Partially visible is another Times Delta article from 1996 that mentions me and other HAM radio operators as we were preparing for Field Day.  The two identical looking plaques are the 2012 and 2013 proclamations issued by the City of Visalia, proclaiming June LGBT Pride Month in the city.  These proclamations were signed by the Mayor Shuklian and the four other City Council members.   (Take that, Porterville!)  Also on the wall is my certificate from the Visalia Police Department’s Citizen’s Police Academy, issued in May 1999.  Down in the corner is my Starfleet Academy diploma, certifying my status as an officer in good standing in the Federation Starfleet.  Not visible are documents and diplomas that are work related, including POST training certificates, Dispatcher of the Year (2005), my HAM radio license, and other work related items.

Local paper prints my online blog in their Weekend Edition

September 21, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, Personal , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

blog_printed_09212013

Here’s the link to the Visalia Times Delta’s site where my blog “Alternating Currents” is posted. I was not notified that they were planning to publish my blog in the print edition, but I’m tickled they did! One minor correction to the printed edition, in the intro, they say I was at the Porterville City Council meeting that ousted Mayor Gurrola and Vice-Mayor McCracken from their ceremonial posts. I didn’t make that meeting, but I was there for the three involving the LGBT Pride Month proclamation, and it’s rescission.

2:30 am, in the drive-thru

September 7, 2013

Jim Reeves commentary, Humor, Personal , , , , , 2 Comments

drive_thru“Hey! Guy in front of me!”

Yeah, that’s probably not something I want to respond to at 2:30 in the morning in the drive-thru lane.  I’m figuring the guy yelling it is somewhere on the high side of a blow into a breathalyzer, and it’s better I just pretend I don’t hear him.

“Hey! You! In front of me!  Don’t act like you can’t hear me!”

Oh, joy, this is not looking like a good time to be stuck between the car in front of me, and the one behind me with the guy who’s probably feeling no pain.

I’m really not sure what to expect, as I was in my pickup, not my car.  My car has a couple of LGBT related stickers on it, but the truck does not, so I knew i most likely wasn’t about to be gay-bashed, but I really was wondering…  maybe it was the Obama magnet on the bed-mounted tool box?  Maybe it was someone who recognized me from a blog posting?  Why is this guy yelling at me in the drive thru?

I really didn’t expect what happened next.

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Moment of geek

September 3, 2013

Jim Reeves geek, Personal , , , , , 1 Comment

Screen Shot 2013-09-03 at 4.42.23 AMThis is a picture of an interesting mystery.

Well, it’s interesting to me, and it’s my blog, so I’m going to babble a bit about it.  (This is the “your mileage may vary” part of the ‘Wit, Wisdom, and Whimsy’ subtitle.)

The scene is my driveway, the view from a cheap security camera.  The mystery presented itself tonight, when the light bulb in the fixture overlooking the vehicles burned out.

The dead bulb (so much for the 15 year life expectancy!) was one of the newer, power-saving fluorescent contraptions that screw into a regular light socket.  It “burns” about 20 watts of electricity, and is supposed to produce an amount of light the equivalent of a 100 watt incandescent bulb.  Here’s where the mystery presents itself.

The image with the fluorescent bulb was dimmer than with the incandescent bulb I replaced it with.

A frosted incandescent bulb of only 60 watts.

The second part of the mystery is even more odd.  If you walk outside and take a look yourself, the driveway is noticeably darker with the 60 watt bulb than with the brighter power-saver.

Except to the camera.

I’m getting a brighter image with a 60 watt incandescent bulb than with a fluorescent with the “equivalent” lumens of a 100 watt bulb.

So now I’m wondering…  why does the camera see with less acuity under the brighter fluorescent light, and better under the dimmer incandescent?  A mystery for the ages.

(If you know the answer, just keep it to yourself. That would ruin the whole “mystery for the ages” thing, and throw off the “Wisdom” part of this blog. Thanks.)

 

A madman in a blue box

August 17, 2013

Jim Reeves fiction, geek, Humor, Personal , , 1 Comment

Screen Shot 2013-08-17 at 7.57.54 PM

The strangest thing happened earlier today.  He tells me we weren’t gone long at all.  It seems like it was, to me, though.  Did you miss me?

Oh, I didn’t just say that…

August 7, 2013

Jim Reeves 9-1-1, commentary, Personal , , , , Leave a comment

dohI can’t believe I said that to the 9-1-1 caller.  It was unintentional, totally inappropriate, and had everyone in the room in fits of giggles.

Other dispatchers will understand the sometimes dark humor we express in our jobs, and how something that to an outside observer (or the brass) will seem completely humorless, but will have us guffawing and giggling for hours afterwards.  Something like that happened to me yesterday, and it involved a crashed aircraft and it’s pilot stuck on a rockface above a lake.

I really meant it to be reassuring, but it sure didn’t come out that way!

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At work

July 29, 2013

Jim Reeves Personal Leave a comment

At work

7/29/2013 TCSO Dispatch

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