Monday, May 24, 2010

Wings on Things-treasury

I really like the new Etsy Treasury. You can make one anytime you want. I really didn't like fighting for one. Thanks Etsy for the feature! Here is my newest one: Wings on Things:



Thursday, May 20, 2010

Citizen's Academy-Jail

You guessed it we got to see the jail on this class. First the jail supervisor talked to us for awhile before we had the tour. I found this part very interesting but makes since. Story County has 104 bed unit but they necessarily don't use it all because inmates need to be put together in a category or you could have a lawsuit on your hands. They can't take a murder and put them in with a drunk driver because they might not get along in the cell and then you might have a lawsuit. He told us you have to be able to balance the inmates so there are no problems. He told us some statistics about our veisha celebration. Since FRI, SAT and SUN are the major partying he told us that out of those three days this year they put 107 people in jail. Since January 1st 2010 they have processed 7000 people at this jail. I thought that was high since we are not a big city. We do hold federal people in this jail too. Then he told us some stories of two men that was his worst problems that he ever came across. We can ask him questions, then go on the tour. When we toured got to see the laundry area and they showed us that they wear orange clogs instead of tennis shoes. I thought that was funny. Another interesting part on the tour was this area that holds all the cameras of the whole facility. There is someone watching all doorways and inmates and taking phone calls. This person lets people through doors. The big screen had about 40 different cameras going at once. It was alot to watch. No sunlight in this room either. In fact the whole facility doesn't have sunlight. When we toured the inmates they have 3 sections. The women are divided out from the men. Then the men there were two holding areas. One was called a hub where you see on TV they are all together sitting around tables. That looked like 50 people in this area. The next section is secured off because it more for the dangerous inmates. These are sex offenders, murders, suicidal or have health issues.Definitely more security there. Actually the whole jail is really nice. It only is 9 years old and looked like new. They do have the working inmates cook, clean floors and other jobs. There are TVs in the rooms and if bad behavior happens then the tv is off. IF they have good behavior they can read a book at the library. So that is the last class I will have. Tonight I go to my graduation ceremony. Wish me luck!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Citizen's Academy-Emergeny Vehicle Operations,Crash/Collision Analysis

We started this class by learning about our obstacle courses we were going to drive. We had 3 course to drive between cones that were set up and if you ran over a cone that was a persons life. We did get to drive the sheriff's car. My first course I drove was to pull out and weave through two cones and then parallel park. After parking to come out and weave around 2 more sets of cones and then go into this box of cones and do a full circle come out of that and then weave back and then back into a box of cones. From there to pull out of that and make a sharp turn and pull into a diagonal set of cones. Back out of that and go back to start. I did this twice. Was not good at the parallel parking, but I did not knock any cones over. The next course to me was the most fun. We started off weaving between cones drive straight forward and stop in a box of cones. Then back up doing a sharp right into a set of cones and coming out of that weaving back to start. You can go as fast as you want. I also did this twice and much braver the 2nd time I took out a cone and was flying as they tell me. The 3rd course was to back up straight about 100 feet and stay between the cones. You can go as fast as you want. The first time was to look over your shoulder and back up. The 2nd time was to only use your mirrors to back up. The 3rd time was to open the car door slightly and look out the door but keep your head down and back up. That was fun. It was because if someone was shooting at you this would be safe way to get out of a situation. I did not knock any cones over this course either. I will write about visiting the jail on Thursday.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Citizen's Academy-Firearms-Hostage Negotation

This past week was exciting for me. First we had our meeting on Thurs last week and then we went to the range to shoot a 9 mm Smith and Wesson. I will talk about the meeting first. When they call in the ERT stands for Emergency Response Team that is new term instead of Swat. These are the items the ERT takes with them but are already geared up in their armor. Radios, Kevlor, gas mask, gas (of various kinds), breaching tools, M-4, SIG 229, MP5, autolog shotgun, gps, and distraction devices. This is what our team caries it will vary in different areas. They passed around the M-4 and the MP5 guns. Then we had a lesson on how to hold our guns in class. No ammunition was used during this time. We had to practice stance, how to hold the gun and where to look through when aiming. How to put the safety off and on. Then Saturday we went to the range and put on our belts and holsters. Then we practice some more on drawing, firing and how to load a new magazine. This was my first time doing any of this. I was having a hard time drawing. My gun would not come out of the holster. I was not quick draw McGraw. Infact I was the last person to be able to get my gun out. We had to have safety glasses on and earplugs. Then we went over to the range to shoot. The first half of the class shot then the 2nd half. I was in the second half. First we had to load 2 magazines. Then shot 10 rounds we were at the 15 yard range. Then we moved back to 20 yards range. Shot 10 more. Then loaded another magazine and shot 10 more at the 25 yard range. Well for my first time out of 30 rounds 4 of them were not even on my target paper. Braised one along the shoulder and one in the gonads. (Look out for that guys!) The rest were in the body cavity and head because we were to practice shooting there. It sure was fun and here is a picture of me shooting. They guy behind me was a deputy to help assist and watch. We all had one. My husband actually had the Head Sheriff watch him. First pic of me then of my husband.