to protect and to serve

[rewind six days; 31 March 2007, 10:26 PM]
Officers Sean Clark and Jeffrey Shelton of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department respond to a domestic disturbance in the Timer Ridge Apartment complex in the North Tryon Division.

At 11:26 PM, Officers Clark and Shelton are shot in a struggle with a suspect. Both succumb to their wounds several hours later.

[fast forward five days; 04 March 2007, 9:20 PM]
As Officer Clark's memorial service draws to a close, I still can't believe that I'm here. The one department that I've been interested in being employed by since high school, and I'm with three of the officers.

I didn't pick this. This was not necessarily the best time to observe. But the ride-along request went through eight days before the shooting happened (23 March 2007). After I learned about the slain officers, I wondered what difference that would have during the shift I would spend with an officer.

It became quite apparent as the night progressed that the officers were in a different mindset. Things that would normally be joked about went unnoticed, while the smallest, most minute detail was paid a great deal of attention.

Not that the smiles weren't there. And there were a lot. The guy who got frisked at 1:30a carrying his "dinner" of just french fries from Jack In The Box. The guy who didn't realize he was giving a ride to a prostitute until we informed him ("...she's just a really nice lady, officers..."). The swarm of people near a crack house who bolted like rabbits as three cruisers drove up.

Yet, most telling point of the night was when the officer I was riding with and I drove into an apartment complex where fireworks were being shot off:

Chad: "Do you know why they're lighting fireworks off?"
Me: "No, not really."
Chad: "Two cops just got killed."

Cooper River '07

After practicing for almost two months, the day finally came. 31 March 2007. The Cooper River Bridge Run. It was simply incredible.

This story begins twenty fours and a half hours before the start of the race. 7:30am, Friday, 30 March 2007. After awakening and finishing my morning routine, I biked off to class. After sitting in class for four hours, I rode back home, made lunch, and drove off to work.

Nine hours later, I arrived home at 11:30PM. For a variety of reasons, I didn't sleep. Michael and I left my house at 1:30am, and after a stop for breakfast a Waffle House, we arrived in Charleston around 3:45am. After seeing the buses, and not wanting to sit around for another ride in another vehicle, we opted to walk the race course in reverse, all 6.2 miles to the start line in Mount Pleasant.

Sitting around for an hour an half before the race was about the worst part. Sitting around in the 50 degree weather in shorts and a thin shirt was not fun. Neither was the woman who was doing the announcements. Annoying to no end.

At 8am sharp, the race began. The excitement, nervousness, and whatever else had building for the past twenty four hours was suddenly released and my legs sprung into action.

I hit the top of the bridge, 250 feet above the Cooper river below, and I suddenly realized for the first time that day just how many people were running. Stretched out in front of me, I could see the course snaking around the corner into downtown Charleston, and 1500 people in front of me. It was incredible.

Forty-six and half minutes later, I crossed the finish line. I was thinking that I did fairly well, until I found out that the winner had just run the entire 6.2 miles in just over 28 minutes. Talk about intense.

And, as we were getting ready to drive away, Michael uttered the best line of the entire trip: "We. Are. Doing. That. Again. Next. Year," he struggled to get out as our stiff, pain-racked, bodies got into the car.

As seen in the newspaper:

WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me.
This is not a joke. P.O. Box 322 Oakview, CA 93022
You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your
own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this
once before.

So, it's not just me when I say that people in this town can't drive

(Article copied from WIStv.com)

"A new report says Columbia has the worst drivers in the entire country.

An article in this month's "Men's Health" magazine ranked 100 US cities for crashes. Columbia finished dead last with a grade of "F."

Here are a couple of the scathing comments in the article:

'Spend a day in Columbia, South Carolina. And wear a helmet. Simply put, the city is lousy with bad drivers.' 'A Boeing 737 could land there, but the cars can't avoid bending fenders.'

So - are Columbia's drivers really that bad? Here's what some of you are saying:

'But this town is bad for you if you're on two wheels, there's no doubt about that. If you ride a motorcycle you take your, you know, your life at peril every time you leave your house around here.' 'I think things move a little too slowly sometimes, but I don't think there's any traffic hazards or, or any accident hazards.' 'In this city we seem like, that we're willing, to just move up one spot we're willing to endanger two or three people's lives when it's not going to get us effectively from Point A to Point B any faster than it would have if we had allowed the person to get in. It just seems to be more accomadating in major metropolitan areas. I do not know why Columbia is like that. I love Columbia. It's my home, I've always lived here. We have some of the worst drivers in America.'

Now, you're probably wondering how Men's Health came up with their findings. Researchers looked at a number of statistics including speeding numbers, traffic accidents and fatalities, and seat belt use.

In case you're wondering what city has the best drivers, it's Des Moines, Iowa."

threats

Sirens flooded the air this morning as multiple Columbia PD patrol units, along with the DHS, responded around 9:00a to a bomb threat at the high school across from my house. The serenity of my Thursday morning was broken first by this, and then the sound of morning traffic, as the streets surrounding the school were closed vehicles were diverted onto the road in front of my house.

Count down: three days

I started running today with apprehension; my legs were hurting and I hadn't even ran 100 meters yet. Terrified thoughts blitzed through my head; "Can I do this Saturday?"

As I continued to run, I realized that I haven't had a break from running since this past Saturday. Everyday for the past four, I've hammered out at least 7 km per run. And now I sit here at my computer, yawning away, exhausted.

These next two days are my self-proclaimed break to let my body reconstruct itself. Rest. Time off. A recharge period--hopefully long enough to sustain the 10 km run on Saturday morning.

4.2

I ran my old course tonight. The one I created several years ago during my freshman year.

Today marks one week to go.

I did something last night that I haven't done in almost two months:

I drank a soda.

I know how unhealthy sodas are, but I was really tired, and I needed to stay alert for the entire length of my evening class.

So I drank a soda. A Mr. Pibb, to be exact. And it cost me a freakin' dollar to get it out of the vending machine.

And after drinking it, my body tried to figure out what this corrosive substance I just ingested was and what way to best remove it. I sat through the entire three hour class period suffering the detrimental effects the soda induced upon me.

Moral of the story: I'm not drinking another soda.

I got 99 problems and 82 of them are the parking spaces on campus I can't find

I paid my parking ticket today. $15. Not terrible.

But I got it for parking in a parking lot over spring break. Granted, it was a teacher lot, but I thought that they had a break just like everyone else did. Oh well.

And, if I hadn't changed the time on this post, it would've said 10:54 PM. It's kinda funny that although computer programmers have had a full two years to change everything to Congress' Energy Policy Act of 2005, most computer times are still off.

Spring Break, by the numbers

Sleeping= 64 hours ($0; -$0/hr)
Working= 25 hours (N/A)
Driving= 24 hours ($33; -$1.4/hr)
Walking/hiking= 6 hours ($0; -$0/hr)
Coffee Shops= 4 hours ($11; -$2.8/hr)
Packing= 2 hours ($0; -$0/hr)

So, according to my data, going to coffee shops is the most expensive thing I did over spring break.

I also spent a full day in a car.