Happy birthday; Advances in police technology; area dirt tracks setting 2010 schedules; two Washington deputies ambushed, suspect killed; white Nebraska Christmas

My oldest daughter, Heather, celebrated a birthday December 18th. She had a posting on her Facebook page about being 29. I wish she was - it would mean that I’m not as old as I am. However, she also tells on herself because she also has her birthday posted on her profile, including the year she was born.


The night she was born, we headed to the hospital about 1 AM. We lived on the west edge of Grand Island and came in to the old Grand Island Memorial Hospital from the west on Faidley. We’d had a pretty good snowstorm just a couple of days earlier and the snow was still blowing across the road. There were no houses along Faidley back then, it was all cornfields. We got to the hospital and I had a couple of papers to fill out, then I went up to begin my wait. When I got upstairs, it was already over and we had a new daughter! I guess that’s the way to do it!!




Things came full circle last winter when Heather & Dana had their 1st child, a son, Landon. He will be 10 months old in a few days and he rules the roost in their home. Unfortunately, it’s over 500 miles to Greeley, Colorado, so we don’t get to see him much, but Heather keeps us updated with pictures. She also has Skype on her computer and we have it on ours, so if we’re on the computer at the same time, we are able to talk and see each other on the computer.

Technology, especially in the last few years, has come such a long way. Cell phones, computers, GPS, video, video surveillance. I can set up video surveillance in cities all over the United States and through the internet, I can sit at a computer in an office and watch all of the surveillance cameras at once. I can remember at times thinking that I wish something was on video, now I have it. When our patrol cars got the first video systems, we had a big lock box in the trunk of the patrol cars that had a VCR in it. We had to ch ange the tapes every 8 hours. We now have digital video that is recorded on a memory card and the entire system is contained in the rear view mirror. We have laptop computers in our patrol cars from which we can run license plates and warrant checks. We can talk to dispatch and other officers through chat on our laptops instead of using the radio. All of our patrol cars have GPS so dispatch can see where we are at all times. They can see us on a map of the city or county and even know how fast we are going.




I found out the other night that the GPS and mobile data now works when we’re out of the county. I had to make a trip to Lincoln, and could communicate by mobile data to dispatch. They could tell me where I was before I knew it, naming cross streets I was passing. All this technology enhances officer safety.

With winter setting in, all the racing going on here is “bench racing.” Nebraska Raceway Park at Greenwood, Nebraska has a tentative schedule posted on their website. Thunderhill Speedway, at Mayetta, Kansas, is under new ownership and they have announced that they will be IMCA sanctioned in 2010. Their program will be IMCA modifieds, sportmods, stock cars and hobby stocks and they will continue to race on Saturday nights. We raced at Thunderhill in a special at the beginning of 2008 and I’d love to go back there some time when the weather is nice and the track is in good shape. Maybe we’ll be able to make another trip there in 2010. We’re already making plans to go to Ft Worth in April for the NASCAR weekend. I’m hoping that with the economic downturn, rooms will be a bit less expensive. Tickets aren’t available as a package deal like they were at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but it looks like even buying them individually, they will be less than they were in Las Vegas.




At about 8:45 PM (PST) on Monday evening, December 21, two Sheriff’s Deputies were ambushed when the responded to a call near Eatonville, Washington. They were responding to a dispute at a home between two brothers. The deputies were shot by David Crable before he was killed when they returned fire. The gunman has a history of "terrorizing" his family. The names of the officers were not immediately released.

The officers were met at the door by Crable's brother. When the deputies entered the house, Crable fired at the deputies from upstairs, hitting one of the officers multiple times.




One deputy was flown to Harborview Medical Center In Seattle, where he was listed as critical in the intensive care unit. The other deputy was taken to Madigan Army Medical Center, where he was listed in serious condition.

We’re in the Christmas season, but not everybody is in the Christmas spirit. PLEASE, everybody, BE CAREFUL out there!!

It looks like we’ll have a white Christmas as there’s another storm taking aim at Nebraska. If you’re living in this area and you don’t have to drive, please stay indoors. If you absolutely must be out in it, be careful. I might be boring to read, but I would not want to spice this up by writing about the misfortunes of people who are playing bumper cars in the bad weather.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everybody!!