Writers Police Academy 2018

Another Writers’ Police Academy is over.  Every time I go, I get something different.  A lot of the attendees seem most interested in the opportunities to shoot, and drive police cars.  Not me.  I am more interested in people. I’m curious about the personalities of first responders and killers.  This year I got insight on both along with learning how to put a tourniquet on me, how spaghetti can be deadly, how a prosecutor thinks, how to tell is a suspect is lying, and how to save some one with Narcan.

I also met a lot of great writers who do interesting things and who I may turn to for information.  I won a super raffle basket with NYPD stuff and some books by one of the presenters Marco Conelli.  He was an undercover detective and has fascinating stories.

This year the hotel was in downtown Green Bay which was nice.   There was a lot of excitement in town because the Green Bay Packers were playing a pre season game with the Titans. I think they come from Nashville, but not sure.  I also think they were staying at our hotel because I saw some guys who looked like football players and there were a lot of cops there protecting somebody.

And then it was on to Chicago where I was looking forward to a peaceful time to work on some ideas I have.  Wrong.  The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that the phone and Internet didn’t work.  Luckily I had my cell phone, but trying to get service on the phone was crazy.  I would get a message saying that any time I could speak to a human if I asked to speak to a live agent.  I asked for that service and got another recording telling me their office was closed and to call back when it was open and then I was cut off.  I did finally put in a request for service using their automated system and I was told they couldn’t come until Thursday from 4:00- 8:00.  It was silly but I felt like I was abandoned on a desert island.  Really silly because I did have my cell phone and this device that can get me online and even my cell phone can be a hotspot, though I have a feeling it costs a bunch.

My building is over 100 years old and they’re rehabbing the windows.  So I had people coming in to take out the storm windows and then men on ladders working on the windows making noise similar to fingernails on a chalkboard.   They have been very nice, but still…  They come early too, so no sitting around in my nightgown drinking coffee.

But the good news is the AT & T guy came four hours early and I’m back online with a functioning landline.  The window guys are close to finished and I have managed to work on stuff anyway.  I think the most important thing I noticed in all of it was not to let any of it get to me.  The older I get, the more of a “whatever” person I’ve become.

What I Learned Over the Weekend

I can’t believe my Greensboro trip is over. I came home with my suitcase bulging with yarn and my mind bulging memories. Unfortunately, I didn’t come home with a camera bulging with good pictures. I made the mistake of taking a camera my son had with no idea what all the buttons were for. Let’s just say in some of the photos I took, people appear to have two heads.

I am glad I focused on watching what was going on instead of trying to take pictures of everything. It’s the same about taking notes. I do best when I just pay attention to what is going on and write down things later.

The morning after I got home, I wrote down a summary of the weekend. When I thought over all that had happened all I could say was whew!

What made the biggest impression on me were small details I heard about during the Writers Police Academy conference. Like the tanks on firemen’s backs aren’t filled with oxygen, but compressed air. It turns out the tanks are dangerous. If they get knocked over, they can act like a punctured balloon and more or less explode.

I mentioned last week my surprise that there is one universal key for all handcuffs. I tried on a kevlar vest and more than the weight, it was the denseness of it that I found uncomfortable to wear.

One of the workshops was on jail searches and was given by a female corrections officer. She mentioned that some of the prisoners do their time on weekends only, and how hard it is to keep them from bringing in contraband. They’re allowed to bring in clean underwear with them, and are very clever about putting things into neckbands and seams. They’ve been known to sneak things in with their bibles. They glue a couple of pages together and put stuff in it. No corrections officer is going to go through all the pages.

I learned that cops have to put handcuffs on bodies just in case they aren’t really dead. The cyber crime specialist said the biggest chance of having your credit card information taken is when you give it to a server at a restaurant. And that it is true, people can scan your credit card and get the information on it while it is safely tucked in your wallet.

A man who taught future police officers at the public safety junior college that held the workshops said to succeed, the students had to learn out to step out of their comfort zone. He also seemed very concerned that the students he was getting now had been brought up using their fingers to play video games instead of going outside to play and using their whole bodies.

I also learned that grits taste much better if you add some butter, but then what doesn’t.

I am going to try and include a photo. One that has somebody with only one head.

DIY Travel

Can it be blog day already? I feel like I’m in one of those movie montages where they show calendar days flipping to show the passage of time.

I lost track of the last two days spending too much time trying to arrange a flights to Greensboro North Carolina. I’ve never been to the state and now I have two overlapping events taking place there on the same weekend. They couldn’t be more opposite. The first two days will be at the Fall Knit and Crochet Show and the last three at the Writers Police Academy.

I’m hoping to take a couple of classes at the Knit and Crochet Show that have to do with a technique I’m using in the book I’m working on now. The Writers Police Academy offers something a little harder edged, like a trip to a jail, information on blood spatter and arson investigation and the chance to climb around in a fire ambulance and cop car among other things.

All that sounds great, but I found out the hard way getting to Greensboro isn’t easy, direct, or cheap. In the old days, I would have just called the airlines or maybe a travel agent, but now thanks to web only fares and the airlines charging you to have a real human sell you a ticket, it was all up to me.

Since I’ve traveled a million miles on American Airlines and they offer me some nice perks, I always try to fly American. I also try to fly out of Burbank airport whenever I have to leave in the early morning. It is quick to get to and looks like a small town airport. When I checked flights through Burbank, I found out it would take two days to get to Greensboro. Flying from LAX at least would get me there in one day, but I’d have to fly to Miami to get a small plane to Greensboro. It was inconvenient and expensive, but just in case, I put a hold on the ticket.

Next I tried Travelocity. They had a number of flights on different airlines. They were more direct and the cost was considerably less, except for one small problem. As far as I could tell there was no way to check the available seats until after you bought your ticket. Concerned, I went directly to the Delta site which did let me check the available seats. They were either middle seats or right next to the bathroom. No way did I want to spend 5 hours on a plane in either of those spots.

My son suggested I fly to Raleigh-Durham or Charlotte. I checked the flights and there were even some direct ones. Ah, but how to get from Raleigh or Charlotte? I found two shuttle services online. They both had great professional looking websites and it seemed like a perfect solution. Until I called them. The first one rang and rang and rang, and was finally answered by voice mail. Not a good sign. The second was answered by a human person with a thick island accent who said they didn’t have shuttles, only a taxi. When I inquired on the cost, he paused and I had the feeling it was just making it up off the top of his head. Not a good sign either.

I went back to my original plan to fly to Greenboro, but I’d looked at so many flights with so many different issues that I couldn’t remember what was what. Hours had flown by on the clock and I finally gave up for that day.

For a moment I considered forgetting the whole trip, but the lure of seeing some of my new friends from the summer Knit and Crochet Show, and taking the class that had just the stitch I was using in my current book, and going to a police academy and maybe to a jail, got me to persevere. On the second day, I checked everything again to see if by some miracle things had changed. The only one that had, was the flight on American Airlines had gone up by $150. When they tell you Tuesday night is a good time to buy a ticket, they’re right. Lucky for me the ticket I’d put on hold had the Tuesday night price. I finally bit the bullet and hit purchase. So, it’s Greensboro here I come.

Do you like having to figure out your own travel arrangements or do you long for the days when you could go into a ticket office and a nice person in a uniform would figure it all out for you and hand you a real ticket?

Computer Joy

At last I can get online without waiting, waiting, waiting. At last I can read my emails without having to watch that swirly thing go around and around before each email would finally open. At last I can click on a website and actually have it download. At last I’m not getting kicked off line .

I’ve had my new desktop computer since March, but getting online was never good and sometimes impossible. It turned out that while I was getting reception from our DSL router, it wasn’t strong enough.

My son got me an antenna and some kind of booster and suddenly everything is working lightening fast. I didn’t realize how much the frustration of my online dealings was coloring my computer habits. Basically, I was avoiding my desktop.

I am certainly glad to have all that speed now. I have been making arrangements go to Minneapolis for the Knit and Crochet Show at the end of July. All that checking of airline schedules and prices would have been a nightmare if it weren’t for my nifty antenna.

The Knit Guild and the Crochet Guild get together and put on a summer show and a fall show. Along with a sales area, there are classes, banquets, fashion shows and lot of people who love to work with yarn. I’m going as research for the crochet mysteries that features Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers and for my new series that is going to feature Casey Feldstein who puts on yarn retreats at a slightly sinister Northern California conference center. I’m also going because I love doing yarn arts. I looked at the list of vendors and I’m bringing an extra suitcase, just in case.

As I said the two guilds put on a fall show as well. This year it’s in Greenboro, North Carolina. The funny thing is I’m already going to Greensboro that same September weekend for the Writers Police Academy. It’s going to be an intense weekend of learning first hand about cops and firefighters. There’s even a lottery and the winner gets a ride along in a sheriff’s car. I don’t remember all the activities, but there was something about a shallow grave and possible bad odors.

I love doing research.

I hope everybody has a safe and happy 4th of July. What are you all doing to celebrate?