Thursday, September 30, 2010

The animals

Last night wasn't too bad but there were some who had it far worse then me. First little guy, he's a raccoon and he's stuck on a pole. Nice, he'll come down, he got up there is my initial stance on that. It goes back to the whole you don't find cat skeleton in trees debate (or chip bags but I'll get to that). Well turns out, not only is the raccoon stuck on a pole, the very tip top of it, he has a glass jar stuck on his head. He's spent the entire day crying. It's breaking the peoples hearts and they keep calling us about him. Well, we don't really go out for raccoons (another story, will get to that too.) so I called DNR who is on the way yey! So he will get rescued and hopefully will lay off the bottle for awhile.

The call prompted a little pod meeting as we didn't have calls so turned our chairs around and so began the normal, chit chat/card game. A co-worker remembered the time he put in a call for a woman because there was a kitten stuck in a chip bag. At first I thought he was joking, come on a chip bag, big ole opening right there, but he was serious. The woman sounded more upset then the cat so we did put a call in (thoughts about an ambulance for her near breakdown). My coworker was laughing when he told us the closing remarks put on the call. "Officer heroically extracted kitten from chip bag. All in order." Which reminded us of another closing remarks put on a noise complaint call. That one had been for a group of youth, 'talking loudly' near an intersection. Closing remarks were. "YO GOA. (youth gone on arrival) Told noisy crows to be quiet, they did not listen." Sometimes I think they close them that way just to give us a laugh.

The last story told before our 911 blew up was of how one coworker was coming back from lunch and could overhear the Sergeant on the radio talking to a Constable, seeing he if he could see the suspect. Constable said he had him in his sight. From the dispatcher chatter it was determined the suspect was on the roof of some panicked lady's house. So my coworker rushes to her desk to see what is going on but can't find the call. She's given the call number and pulls up an animal complaint. Seems there was a raccoon on this lady's roof and she was having a conniption fit. It had been a very slow night so the Sergeant and Constable were having some fun on the radio as they 'tracked' the suspect along the roof and then went into a foot pursuit. Apparently when they read the raccoons it's rights it was funny but that's when 911 blew up and we had to talk to the other animals.

Freaked out lady: He's from Alberta but he said he'd send his boys from here to my house.
Me: Did he give any names or when this would happen?
Freaked out lady: Just the crazytown boys from the hood.
Me: The hood eh?
Freaked out lady: Do you know what they plan to do when they get to my house?
Me: I doubt it's for tea and cookies.

Okay, so maybe by this part her half-shrill/crying/over the top was getting on my nerves. All this wasn't even directed towards her, it was to her son who didn't give a shit. No one came either. I seemed to have a night full of me saying something and then going shit, I probably shouldn't have said that.

Supervisor Plaid Jacket: The woman has skitzophrenia
Me: At least she's not alone.
Supervisor Plaid Jacket: She had a knife too.
Me: Was it a hostage situation?
Supervisor Plaid Jacket: Have you had your caffeine today?
Me: No and my locker bit me too.

Supervisor Plaid Jacket backed away to his fire pod.

Friday, September 24, 2010

My hat goes off

I saw this link on Facebook and I'll admit, I'm a sappy person at times. *Sigh* no cure for it either I hear. http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/911song/ Okay there were a few points when I held my breath. It reminded me of when one of our booking officers (who wasn't carrying a gun) was coming off duty and went into the main lobby to help a motorist out front and a guy came in with a knife and demanded the officer shoot him. The booking officer couldn't get away really, guy was by the front door and the door he came out of locks from this side after 17:00. Since the officer never came out this way, only doing so today to help the motorist, he didn't know that.

The poor front desk commissionaire, who is safe behind the glass is frantically dialing our dispatch center for back up as this guy is pacing now. They showed us the video surveillance in our block training. You can see the booking officer, opening up his jacket to show that he doesn't have a gun. Now the suspect is pacing even more and starting to cut his own wrists and eventually has our officer cornered. I think while watching the video in block training, no one breathed. I know I didn't and I even knew how it ended. I could remember thinking, not him, not my charming, flirting, sarcastic, loving, caring, french booking officer. (not that I wanted it to be anyone cause I would have been able to come up with almost as many verbs to describe them)

There is a bit of a time delay cause even though we have officers in the building even ... we were told this, "there's a guy with a knife trying to kill the booking officer. OH MY GOD!" Where do you think we went? Booking. Our guys fly in and .... there's no one there. Well one booking officer who is a little confused at the sudden flood of blue and guns.

So then we call back and ouuu front door. Race of blue and guns to the front door. I can't imagine what is going through the officers head as they burst through a door with their guns while they know one of their own is in peril. But to have to do it twice in 10 mins. You see in the camera the guns first, they make it first, just the guns and they are wavering a bit, then you see the arms and the suspect pretty much raise the knife at them. He's so wired and suicidal, death by cop, not the way I'd want to go out.

One officer tries to taser him but it doesn't work. It's failed. Fuck. We're told that another officer was less then milliseconds from pulling his trigger when another officer burst in and used his taser which worked and took the guy down. My poor french guy is still in the corner and they get him out. They get the suspect a paramedic and that is the end of that. I started to breath about 5 minutes later.

So that's what that video, the link I shared, reminded me of. So needless to say I didn't breathe while watching it, but felt the same relief at the end. Kudos to all that go into the danger when everyone else is running the other way. My hat goes off!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The many ways to skin a Kat (Vent warning)

What a cycle, whew it was a tiring one, one that pretty much beat you up repeatedly in every which way possible. God, it was a long 4 days. Talking to a suicidal woman who, while talking to me just realized the severity of what she had done (overdosed) and lost her mind. She was throwing up, hyperventilating, screaming, balling and there was just no doing with her. All of this, at the highest volume possible for about 15 minutes. I needed a five minute break after her, just to get my hearing back. Lets see after that what was it ... not the 'fuck you, I'm going to kill you bitch' no I tried not to laugh at him. Next day was a 13 month that was foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled back and not breathing, listening to the mother lose her mind, sobbing and just gone. Husband was the only one that could speak and that was through mumbled 'oh my god'. And tonight, hmmm oh yes, 4 complaints lodged against me from 1 coworker, 3 completely bullshit. But I got hauled into the office anyways, I sit down. I know what it's about. I'd like to believe I'm over the teenage mentality of 'they're out to get me' but this coworker is making me doubt my stance.

I sit down and he has a call of mine on his desk. I can read enough of it upside down to know which one it is. 20 minute call goes down like this. 911 rings and a 10 year old girl is hysterical. A friend of her mothers is pounding at the door trying to break it down. She has a knife and is carving the door with it, threatening to kill everyone inside. Lovely. Kid is traumatised but she can tell me her address and her phone number. God love you kid, you brave soul. I enter a call to get help before the worst happens, this little girl is not in a good place in town and I doubt they make good solid doors out there that could take the beating on the door that I could hear. I pound the call in, let's get some help moving. Mother takes the phone and is pissed at the daughter for calling the police, I wanted to slap that woman. I get the mother's name, DOB, the friends name and age and pound her on the call. All the info goes, description everything. Friend is an upstairs neighbor who, when realizing police are being called goes back to her apt where there are 2 kids, 2 and 5. Lovely. Police get there, we handle it. Done. Okay the complaint lodged against that call, well there was 2 actually. 1st one, when I pounded in the call, I didn't put the 10 year old girls name in the call screen. Whoopde fuck. There's a psycho with a knife pounding on her door trying to kill people, girl's name is not top priority. Mother's name goes in on second sup, suspects name goes on the same second sup. Daughters name sixth sup but that is an officer safety issue apparently. I'm sorry. I'm a big advocate for officer's safety, nothing means more to me then keeping our own boys and girls safe, so that really offended me.

2nd complaint, when the address went in there are 2 different endings for the street. It can either be Random Drive or Random Connector. It should have been Random drive but my finger clicked the wrong one. I can understand that issue if I had not caught the mistake myself within 1 min, fixed it and informed the damn dispatcher. I'm human not a machine, I'm doing a million things at once; cut me a little slack.

The other two complaints are just argh, what! Both were for not staying on the phone for two other calls. And each time it wasn't necessary, all info was obtained, nothing could be gained from staying on, callers were not in danger. All four complaints were lodged by the same dispatcher. Well now I know another complaint will be issued from tonight cause I pissed her off. I didn't make, what she considered, a stupid call go away. Suicidal woman, no description, no anything at the casino. Bang that's it. She wanted to close it. I wasn't done with it. I could work something. Give me a chance. The woman had said she was going to kill herself to a help line that has a 888 number. luck upon luck I was able to do a successful trace and I got a payphone that she called from. I then said i could call the casino, dispatcher said don't bother you won't get anywhere. I told her doing something was better then nothing, which really pissed her off. I called the casino and wouldn't you damn well know it, they knew where that payphone was located. Good I have a better location now, the call was placed only a little while ago. They have video cameras. I got a description now. Guess who has to do their job now miss dispatcher. I turned a call you wanted to close into something you have to work on. Hopefully we can find this girl and get her the help she needs, no thanks to the high school mind set that seems to have taken over.

So yeah I figure 1st day back I'll be hauled into the office, maybe I didn't dot an i or cross a t. I don't care, I'm not perfect. I'm human. I make mistakes but I own them. I've been told I'm not the only one she does this too. Our managers are realizing that she is essentially bullying several people. I just joined the club. Sweet. Let's crash the club house eh? Why is that we can do a critical job that truly is about more then us, but we can't deal with each other. Someone can handle a robbery at gun point but they don't know how to tell someone that they work with, hey about that call you put in, do you think that could do this? Or did you know this?'

I don't know. I'm tired. I'm ranting. I'm still mad about the officer safety remark. I don't spread the shit at work so sadly that leaves any readers to hear about. I should add that a coworker seein my mood slide down the crap chute, played this video for me. I hearts it. I came home and found a link, here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfGBYtc6q_M&feature=related I'll see how my next cycles go, because as we all know, there are many ways to skin a Kat.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Airplanes and Seat belts

Last night was pretty slow for Crazy Town, nothing much happened at all. We had a shooting where a guy lost a good chunk of his leg to a shot gun but that was about it. It was so dull we came to the inevitable conclusion: Boredom equals trouble. Picture this, you have a room with 13 people doing nothing in tight spot. Let's see we had things flying over half walls, little poker game, coffee all round and of course a big ole gab session. One of my coworkers made a paper airplane, now she makes these things smooth, it is awesome. I waited until another coworker on the other side of a half-wall got a call and then sent the plane over. Direct hit! I may not be able to read lips normally but what she said was pretty clear. LOL!

Dispatcher Grumpy was in fire dispatch tonight so he was sort of hidden away. That didn't stop him from calling up this number that plays you the weather forecast and then conferencing it to my phone. I answer "Police and Fire communications, how can I ...." Then this lady is telling me about the weather. Of course me being me I start talking to her then quickly realize its a tape and that's on my secondary line. Next airplane went at his head!

To end the shift I got a ride home from one of the officers where I don't have a car and no one else was going home (I am technically part time which means I work 3 less hours). So I approach the car, and man I know I work with these guys and I know the officer inside is really nice but damn that car is still intimidating. I see it coming towards me and the only thing in my mind is "Run run run run." Officer JM lets me sit up front and he is typing up a report as he parks and I get in. I'm struggling with the seat belt now because it looks like it goes behind the seat itself. So I pull at it and doesn't it snap around and whip at my face. Turns out it had been buckled in but the strap pulled around back, done by the day shift guy. The whole right side of my face is on fire and I can't open my right eye. Poor Officer JM he is freaking because he forgot to warn me and now he's afraid I'm injured in his car. Means another report. I tell him I'm fine and try not to let him see the tears that are coming from that eye, I wasn't crying but the eye was still trying to flush out whatever had hit it. Of course he doesn't take my word for it and flicks the light on, which after a night spent mostly in the semi lite building, also makes me cringe, damn that white light. He looks it over and eventually my eye opens on its own but it's swollen a bit. The whole time he's saying sorry and I'm saying it's alright, I'm fine, stop fussing and then he continues to fuss. He then unbuckles the seat belt and I pull it around the other side, the sweet guy then takes it and buckles it in for me. The entire way home he is making me laugh and by the time I get out I feel a better and he laughs about what my neighbors are going to say. Screw the neighbors, that was fun, just next time I have to watch out for what's in the cop car and not the actual car.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Check points and projectiles

So we stopped a girl the other night, check points, oh how the public *loves* those. And she refused to give the officer any of her information. Flat out refused. Great way to start. Officer keeps asking her why and she eventually tells him because she can't find her license. Great. Officer asks her to step out of the car. She does and promptly falls on the ground. Officer asks her if she's ok. Big ole yup. Officer then asks her to get up and she sits up, leaning against her car. At this point we have another member coming just in case this thing turns. The senior member wants her to stand up and starts asking her questions but she can't answer them. Questions like what her name is. When asked why she couldn't her reply, and I quote "I am so fucking drunk I don't hella know. Why are you bothering me?" End quote. Needless to say someone lost their car and got a free tip downtown to the Ironbar Hotel. She was a crier too, cried and yelled all night long, booking officer was thrilled.

Apparently I am jinxed when it comes to equipment. I always seem to sit at the terminal when it's just about to blow up. It's come to the point where the tech knows me by name and when she comes to our center she comes straight to me and ask me what I did. Well today we discovered it is not limited to the terminals, oh no. I was just sitting there minding my own business, talking to a guy about a suspicious person (who turned out to rob the joint) when I felt a pain in my neck and heard a click sound.

Do you know how hard it is not to holler out when you are on a taped line. I could only imagine how that would sound. "So this guy was wearing a black bandanna around his aaahhhh!" I was able to wait until my call was done and to see what had hit me. I can already tell something is wrong with my headset because it feels a lot heavier. Turns out the little clipy thing that connects my headset to my shirt broke, whipped through the air and hit me. Got a big old red spot. Apparently though this does not count as a 'work place injury' and I have to continue to work to get my pay. Sigh. Oh well. With my luck I'll prolly get electrocuted next ...

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Trip to the Hospital, thank you very much Crohns

Alrighty, where do I start ... Crohns sucks, big time. Wednesday afternoon I decided I was going to have baby carrots, may sound innocent enough but my condition means I have to be careful around raw veggies. Some I can have and others can tick off the ole crohns. Well I figured I'd try three , three stupid little stick of carrot wrecked havoc for 4 days! By Wednesday night I was in pain and not sleeping. Thursday I blamed the upset stomach on the heat, it had been sweltering so I tried to take a cold shower. Instant barf and back pain so my dad drove me to work and I watched tv in the A/C. That night I still wasn't feeling any better but tried to sleep it off. To skip the gross parts I will say I spent most of the time worshiping the porcelain god until about 2:30 when I couldn't take it anymore and checked myself into the hospital. I told them all I wanted was for the pain to stop which literately felt like a basketball with knives jutting out, dribbling inside my gut. There was no way I could see my specialist as she books so far in advance and my family doctor, way out in another county is the same. Hospital, only option. *Sighs*. While I was waiting in the waiting room, hunched over and swaying I could see a little boy about five or so walk over to me. He looked at me, tilted his head to the side and just stared. I meant to say what or something to that affect but the only thing that came out was this weird groan. Needless to say, 911 operator/freaky lady scares the shit out of little kids will be the headline for the newspaper. He took off so fast and stayed by his mother the rest of the time. Little punk, lol.

I was taken to the Emerg pretty fast and got to sit in one of their beds and wear their stupid little dress thingys that I hate! I was in too much pain to complain so I just sat there again, hunched over, daring any punk kids to stare at quasi modo. Nurse came took my blood, thankfully I had Emla, which is a little patch that freezes your skin so you don't feel a needle. Works wonders for me because I have a serious phobia of needles. Got a bunch of tests done and their conclusion was my crohns and those god damn carrots gave me a partial obstruction. That guaranteed me a night there. They put an Iv me and by this time I am in no mood to do anything. I'm just sitting there. staring at a wall. Iv in, no problem. Then comes the Morphine, Oh my hell I hate that too. It shoots fire up your back and feels like your body is being sucked into your spine. Well I flopped back and scared the damn nurse. Apparently she was new. She got someone to check on me. I was fine, just very uncomfortable at the moment. My abdominal pain did go away and finally I got to relax for a little. The same nurse came back and put something else in my IV, not sure what that was. Anyways she came back later to check on me and my hand was swelling up, with these blister like things on it. So I scare the same damn nurse again. (So sorry Jacks, I am ruining the mental health of your NS counterpart) She goes off to get the senior nurse again who tells me everything is alright and to go back to sleep. Apparently that was ok for me and I passed out again. It's amazing how accepting you can be in the hospital.

So sleep came off and on for a little while. I'm cranky as the devil on roids and the scared little nurse keeps checking to make sure I'm alive. Whoever you are out there, if you are reading this, please don't quit. You were very nice and told me my nearly swollen eyes and fuzz ball hair didn't look that bad. A liar, but very nice. . The surgeon told me she didn't think surgery was necessary (good cause I wasn't getting it) and that the roids/random drugs would be enough to fix it. But I would have to be admitted over night. Then came the waterworks. I wanted to work the next day, it was the Hurricane I had been waiting all summer for. Okay in my defense, I blame the tears on tiredness, drugs and pain. I was admitted and brought up stairs where I bunked with an elderly woman. Eventually the roids, random drugs and morphine was enough to make the pain all go away. I looked at my roommate briefly she was getting injections into her gut, mine were going in my iv and we both had the same look, there was a silent understanding. Then I passed out again. FYI passing out sucks because you wake up feeling like shit and you don't remember the thought of going to sleep.

Being out like a light for 5 hours or so I woke up at eight that night and we talked. She was funny for an old lady, lol. Turns out she has something twacked out on her back and she needed serious pain meds every 4 hrs to cope. sucky. That night we ended up watching a mystery/murder movie on tv, sitting on our beds, wrapped up in blankets with our lovely 'ice chips and water.' The nurse comes in and scares the shit out of us. It's ok. I figured I had it coming and the ER nurse sent her to get me. We stayed up most of the night, cause come on really, they had to check our vitals every view hours and that would keep us awake for awhile. They'd chat, we'd chat with each other and fall asleep to tv. Ended up getting awake by 5 and having cold showers. I'm talking about glacier water being dumped down.

The rest of the day was spent wondering around the hospital, her hobbling, me walking in my lovely shit hospital dress and Iv pole. The power was out so that meant no tv for us as it reset her subscription when the power came back on. We entertained ourselves and I was curious to where the morgue was. No easy way to find it but we weren't looking that hard. I met my floor doctor person for the first time who was a military doctor working there temporarily for some reason. Didn't matter why, he was freaking hot. Brush cut, ripped and damn those blue eyes. I could stay in there forever. He got a prescription for me for my roids and let me go home. Woo hoo! My roommate said she was glad I came in, apparently she had 5 before me and out of all of them, they were either in so much pain they couldn't talk to her or they died. Oh, glad I was made aware of this.

All and all I am feeling better, exhausted still but better. No pain now. I have learned that Emla is freaking amazing and that the true enemy, is carrots.

P.S. side note. How many officers and a call taker does it take to colour a picture? The answer, 3!
The last night shift before I was colouring with our new crayons in some printed out colouring sheets when two came up behind me. I was trying to figure out what these squiggly little things were on the drawing officers formal uniform was. They were helping me, telling me what they were, the colours, the story. My boss walks by and shakes his head. He said I needed to have police supervision.