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CHAPTER THREE - ALMOST HOME

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  I am proud of all of our children, our grandchildren, and we love them very much. All of them are good moral people and talented in some way or the other. My oldest boy Rob not only looks like my father but like him he is a great father himself. My father was a great father before he succumbed to mental illness. Rob, and his wife Lisa, have spent much time and money allowing their boys Robbie and Blaine to pursue their sports interests over the years. Just like Rob they are great athletes. Rob is very laid back and nothing seems to bother him. He has always seemed to have his head screwed on right and is very smart. He has a great sense of humor. I hate that he lives in Vero Beach Florida and I only get to see him a couple of times a year but he seems to be very happy. He is also a U.S. Navy veteran. Our daughter Misty is a survivor because she has been through a lot. I have worried much about her over the years. She has always been a stunningly beautiful girl. Misty could have ...
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CHAPTER TWO - ALMOST HOME

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    We have been fortunate by having had the opportunity to travel so much over the course of our lives. In 2008 we took a vacation in Corpus Christi Texas and I finally got to see not only the Alamo, but where Sam Houston won Texas independence at the battle of San Jacinto. I can confirm here that the Alamo does not have a basement. There was, however; a restaurant across the street named The Basement. We also got to meet the father and sister of Salena in Corpus Christi. Her father gave us a tour of his recording studio and he was a really nice guy. There was also a Salena museum there at the recording studio. The recording studio and museum was in a bad part of town and about the only way that you could tell there was anything there was a painting of Salena on the side of the building that looked more like graffiti than anything.   In 2012 we were able to go back to Colorado Springs after 40 years. It was a dream come true for us because we enjoyed it so much when...
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CHAPTER ONE - ALMOST HOME

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 In the early months of 2017 I had a couple of episodes with my heart. I was averaging about 2 or three a year and I got to where I hated the routine of going to the ER and having to wait in an exam room for hours at a time. Usually, my heart would convert on it's own. My heart has only been shocked once to get it back in rhythm. So after a while when it would go out of rhythm I started hanging out at the house instead of running to the ER. After a few hours my heart would convert on it's own. Most of my episodes happened after I went to sleep at night. A few occurred while I was awake and it seemed to be related to how late I ate supper and the kind of food that I ate. Foods high in sodium or spicy foods seemed to be the worst for me. The doctor told me that my heart was showing some signs of enlargement. Nothing to really worry about in the short term but in the long term it could lead to heart failure. My heart rhythm specialist told me a few years ago about a heart procedur...
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CHAPTER TEN- HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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   The following incident gave me an up close and personal look at media bias and fake news. We had another incident that illustrates the difference between the leftist media and conservative media. I got a call from an officer one night that he had asked a woman that was wearing a shirt with profanity written on it to turn her shirt inside out or to cover it up with something. He said that she was very cooperative and agreed to do it. About 30 minutes later he saw the same woman and she was still wearing the shirt. She was with a man and this time my officer told her to leave the mall because she had not complied. The man spoke up and said that she wasn't leaving the mall because she had a 1st Amendment right to wear it. I told my officer to  call the police and have her removed.   This couple, who were man and wife, bombarded Twitter with posts saying that they were forced to leave the mall because they were wearing Trump MAGA hats. Until these Twitter posts I...
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CHAPTER NINE - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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  I am working for my fifth security company since I came to work at the mall in June 2010. Management had asked me numerous times to become the site supervisor since then but I declined for two reasons. The first reason is that I considered this job to be my retirement job and I did not want the stress of management. Second, I couldn't even if I wanted the job because from the age of 62 when I began drawing my social security, until the age of 66, I was only able to work 32 hours or less each week. I had a yearly wage cap that averaged 15,000 a year.   When Allied-Barton took over the contract I was asked to be a site supervisor but instead I agreed to be a Lieutenant, or the assistant site supervisor. During this time I had several supervisors that I was able to get along with okay, and was happy not to have that responsibility. Two of my supervisors were no more than 19 or twenty 20 years old but I actually enjoyed working for them. My daughter Misty, to my delight, be...
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CHAPTER EIGHT - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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     I have always resisted the temptation to profile and stereotype people. This job, however; has made me realize just how quickly many black people are willing to stereotype me. To many, I am just a racist old white guy in a uniform. In my opinion, most black people do not hold that opinion but far too many do. One of my favorite lines from the movie, Remember The Titans, is when Denzel Washington says "I don't dance unless I hear music". In other words my suspicions are not aroused until you give me a reason to be suspicious. If I see anyone acting suspicious, or I have been told that a person is trying to steal, I will respond and follow the people involved at a safe distance. Again, my job is to detect, deter, observe and report. When a person violates mall rules I will say something to them, or follow them, and I could care less if you are black, white, hispanic, asian, homosexual, transsexual, straight or have tentacles growing out of your head. I have been calle...
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CHAPTER SEVEN - HEADING FOR THE FINISH LINE

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We have had our share of drug overdoses which have happened primarily in the parking lot. I didn't see this happen but we had a woman run naked through the mall high on drugs one morning. On another occasion I got a call that a man was acting crazy and when I got there he was dancing in the middle of the road having himself a good ole time. Another time a man pointed out a woman that was slumped over her steering wheel. Upon further investigation I realized she was the mother of my niece which was an awkward situation for me. She was so drunk that she didn't recognize me.   One night I got a call that two men were slumped over in a car near Shoe Carnival. I called our on site police officer and he arrived on scene a little before I did. When he first arrived he thought they were dead. After I arrived he was talking to a man on the passenger side that was just starting to gain consciousness. We spotted syringes right out in the open and the officer told me to call 911 in order ...
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