Better late than never! The Visalia Times Delta publishes my letter

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October 11 was National Coming Out Day.  I wrote and submitted a Letter To The Editor about it, hoping my local paper, The Visalia Times Delta, would publish it on NCOD.  They didn’t, and I dismissed the hope of seeing it in the printed edition.  A few days after the 11th, I went ahead and posted it in the blog section of the paper’s online site, and to QueerVisalia.com.  Imagine my surprise to see it in yesterdays paper!  It appeared on the 11th, but the 11th of Novemeber!  Better late than never, I suppose.  The comments are filling up with a lot of religious bigotry and hatred, and a couple of positive remarks.  There are a lot of remarks from a few different screen names, posting multiple times, and endlessly going on about how I’m going to hell, and need to repent.  Some of us who post regularly to the online forums of the VTD suspect the multiple screen names belong to one individual, but you never know.  In this area, there are plenty of homophobes ready and willing to rant their anonymous diatribes.  It could be more than one person, but regardless, they continue to spout lies, hatred, bigotry, and endlessly go on about how “God” hates this that and the other.  But, it did get printed.  Already got some nice comments at work and at my Facebook page about it.
Check it out here.

Kris & John’s New Home

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My sister Kristeen and her husband John have bought a home and land in Woodlake.  Congratulations to them both!  It’s a really cool place they’re going to love it.  Pool parties!

Cracking Jokes At Work – The Value of being out and proud

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Thursday night a couple of the ladies at work are chatting, alternating between being silly and serious, when the conversation turned to the relative size of their tushes. One, a rather slim one, was joking that she was going to have implants done to her bottom side. The other, a bit on the heavy side, said she’d like to have some removed. Then she offered hers to the first, saying she could spare some, and that then they’d be “butt buddies”.

I spoke up and said “you know, in my world, ‘butt buddies’ has a whole different meaning!”

It’s a good thing the radio traffic was dead right then, because neither one would have been able to transmit anything but laughter.

That humorous interlude would have been impossible if I were still in the closet. Just another reason to be out and proud. You don’t have to pass on fun word play!

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Last few minutes at work, first day back after a short vacation.  Not a very busy night, thank goodness.  One crazy call late, guy calling a small Texas Police Department and making obscene comments to the dispatcher.  They called us after they tracked down the cell phone’s location and asked us to see if we could find him.  He’s apparently made dozens of calls to them tonight, saying he “wanted pussy”, in both english and spanish.  I left before he was located, so I don’t know if we solved that problem or not.  You just never know what will pop up.

Going Postal

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Kaweah Colony Post Office, Kaweah, California.  3 miles up North Fork Drive from Three Rivers.  Possibly the smallest U.S. Postal Service Office in the US. The heart of Kaweah, California.  I took a drive up there recently, just to see.

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Sweet, Sweet Seduction

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I’ve been seduced. I’m not quite sure who should get the credit, Steve or Ted, but I should probably “blame” it all on Ted. So much of what has gone on in the last 15 years of my life has been due to his influence.  When I first met him, he was a 20 year old computer whiz kid, and damned cute!  Since that first meeting, he’s tried to teach me computers, with various levels of success.  For years, he’s been trying to get me to switch to Apple, but I’d resisted his charms, and Steve’s as well.  Well, I finally was forced to give in.  Steve may have designed the hardware, but the credit has to go to Ted for making me actually bite the Apple.

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Vacation 2.0

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I’m on vacation again.  No plans, but who knows what will pop up?

Yes, again.

Here’s how it works:

I’ve been on the job for over 17 years, now.  I’m at the highest vacation accrual rate.  That’s good for about 4 weeks or more a year.  We’re also able to take 8 hours a year as a personal holiday.  Where the extra time really kicks in, however, is holidays.  Most people in government employ get 13 holidays a year, spread out during the 12 months.  It’s usually a Monday, although Thanksgiving and Christmas are in there, too, and generate a couple of days for each in those 13.  The “regular” daytime administrative staff gets the day off, with pay.  Since my job is 24/7/365, we work the holidays.  Since it’s inequitable to give some people the day off with pay, but not others, we get 8 hours of vacation time added to our time banks.  With the personal holiday, that’s another 2 weeks!

Some people are amazed at the time I have available for vacation, but they seldom think of the days they take off through the year for various 3 day weekends.  If a holiday falls on my regular work day, I’m working.  You might be at home watching football, but I’m at work!

I simply take all those days off at different times than you.

I go back to work on the 18th.

Yeah, I love my job!

A Trip Down Memory Lane – But Time Waits For No Man

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So this afternoon I decided to take a little drive around the county, just to hit some areas I hadn’t seen before, or in a while.  I like to be able to visualize the locations I send deputies to, and it helps to be able to see what they actually look like.  I ended up in Porterville after making a loop through Tulare and the west and south sides of the county, and decided to stop by the house my grandparents lived in for about a decade, and I lived in for a little less than a year when I was 11 or 12.  It’s seen better days.

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First Step Done: 60 day notice given. Countdown begins.

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I didn’t realize it has been that long.  I let my cousin Tracy move into my home in late 2002, after the death of his mother.  At the time, I told him it was just for a short time, until he could find a place of his own.  That, of course, never happened.  He’s been here nine years, and I’ve reached the end of my rope.  He’s paranoid schizophrenic, and has refused to take his medications for a long time now.  He self medicates with alcohol, until he runs out of money from his SSI check.  He thinks I let people in the house to mess with his stuff, and to steal his food.  Since I refuse to keep food in the house (every dollar I spend in food that he eats frees up a dollar of his to buy more beer), he convinces himself that what he bought was stolen, and that I allow it.  I’ve supposedly given out keys to the house to other people, so they can come in when he’s not here.  The list goes on, and everyone who is a relative of ours, or is a friend of mine, gets listed as the culprit in whatever fantasy he’s concocted.  He’s never been physically violent, only verbally, but I’ve had enough, regardless.

When he moved in, I told him what the situation was.  He knew I was gay, and that meant I might have company from time to time.  He assured me he was cool with that, and at first he was.  Now, I’m apparently fucking everyone that pops into his mind, from his daughter to random strangers passing by.  He rambles on, accusing me of being a “sick gay-lesbian-homosexual” that’s having sex with his daughter, his ex, or whoever.

When he moved in, he made me several promises:  He’d stay on his meds, no alcohol, and he’d smoke outside.  He’s broken every one of them.  He’s put holes in the walls of my house in three rooms, and has stained the carpets.  He broke the door frame to the kitchen-to-garage door.  He recently destroyed my front screen door, coming home so drunk he could barely walk, and fell right through it as he was trying to open it.  I had to follow after him wiping blood off my walls because he had fallen somewhere and was bleeding from the forehead where he had hit the ground.  He fell onto my end table, destroying a picture and frame sitting there.  I find shopping carts in my back yard, and things he digs out of trash cans in my garage.  I’ve had enough.

Well, it ends soon.  Today I gave him a 60 day notice, as required by California law.  If he’s still here at the end of that time, I’ll go to court and file eviction papers, and he’ll be thrown out, forcefully, if necessary.  Stay tuned.

This old angry hetero doesn’t care, why should the rest? (via Queer Landia)

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Clint tells it like it should be.

This old angry hetero doesn't care, why should the rest? As the saying goes, only the good die young. If that's true, being only just in my 20's I can rest assured that I won't kick the bucket until well into my 90's. So after I've lived a full life making immoral, and irresponsible decisions and I'm beating young whippersnappers off my lawn with my cane while grunting "back in my day…", if I can consider myself one-quarter of the badass that Clint Eastwood is, I'll be a happy grumpy old man. Clint E … Read More

via Queer Landia

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