Its been a long time since I rock and rolled

Its been a long time since I did the stroll.

Its been a long time since I blogged too!

Not much new to report here, things are pretty much maintaining the status quo. It's been cold but not nearly as cold as that one day. We've almost managed to avoid most of the bad weather, it's been way to the north of us. I almost would rather have the snow and ice though, right now it looks like it should be about 75 degrees outside and it is closer to 35 or 40. We did get some good rain though, so that helps after the long dry summer we had.

The most exciting thing to happen lately is that I got a new tool for work. Well, more appropriately, the City bought a new tool, but I had the idea to get it, and I'm the first one to get to play with it. I've spent my morning playing with it and teaching April to use it.

I don't remember if I blogged about this before or not (ok, I just checked, and it appears I have not) so here' s a quick background story for you.

Sometime around the holiday season, BPD got a call out to do a welfare check on a Sweet Little Old Lady (SLOL) that lived alone. See, her kids lived pretty far away, and she had not been answering her phone when they called, she wasn't returning email, she wasn't mailing letters. So naturally they got worried, and asked the PD to swing by and check on her.

They go to the house, knock on the doors, the windows, ring the bell, call the house, and nothing. No answer, no 'go away', not even a dog barking. They aren't exactly equipped to get into a house (I mean, they can kick the door down I suppose, but that isn't a generally accepted practice, it's harder than the movies would have you believe and you could end up hurting yourself), and their procedures say to call us if they need in.

The local engine company responds to the house to force entry. I was not there. I have not spoken with anyone that was. I am just related the story as told to me. They opt to force the front door open (there has been debate as to whether this was the best method, but it is the one they went with, and I am not going to second guess them).

So with a bang and a crash, they use their tools to bust open the front door. I'll give you 3 guesses as to what they saw on the other side. Being that it was the holiday season, I guess Santa Claus would be a good first guess, but that wasn't it. Shucks, maybe they would have visions of sugar plum faeries dancing in the entryway, but no, wrong again.

Naturally, after breaking down the door (figuratively) they see said SLOL standing there asking the most natural question in the world; 'Why did you break down my door?'. I can only assume that they had some questions in return, but again, that would be speculation on my part.

So here's the end of the story. SLOL said that her kids not treating her right, so she decided to ignore them and have a nice holiday to herself. She also decided to send the city a $2600 bill for the damages of forcing entry.

Here's the part where I join the story (with how much I write, can we call it an 'Epic Story?'). Several emails come out from the powers that be about how things are going to work, and how to avoid this in the future. I remembered reading about a tool in a book called an 'Auto Pick'. Essentially it is a mechanical lockpick, helping negate some of the skill needed to pick a lock. I did some research and found out that we could get one for less than $50. I did a little more research, and sent two proposals to the Assistant Chief about alternatives to breaking down SLOL's doors. In the end the Auto Pick was the option that was chosen. It came in the mail today, and I spent my morning learning how to use it, and then I was able to teach April how to use it. She actually picked up on it much more quickly than I did. Hopefully this will mean that I will be able to teach the guys at the department how to use it.

My idea is to leave it on the shift commander's vehicle. That way the most senior guy on duty will have control of it, and since he is also the most mobile, if anyone needs it he can bring it to them. This won't be used at fires and such, but when time is not of the essence and we need to gain entry to a house with minimal damage, this will hopefully fit the bill.

The hard part now will be making a training document that will show everyone how to use it. I am also hoping to train one person per shift to show the others, since it isn't really something that lends itself to reading about and then easily picking up (it took me about an hour the first time to pick a lock, but it has gotten steadily easier ever since). The real trick (and the part that I think will be the hardest to teach) is that you do not want to use force. If you try to force it, it will not work and you will likely break it. It is definitely a finesse tool, and I think that is part of why April was able to pick it up so easily.

If you were wondering what it looks like, well, this is it:


Not much to it, but it is pretty cool. Sorry for the long blog. Hopefully April will blog about her cool new kitchen knife, but if not I'll post it up for her. See you guys later.