Me Weird?

Mystery/crime writers have to be somewhat weird I suppose in order to want to come up with creative ways to kill, maim and torture and hide it all from the police.  After this weekend I'm a little bit weirder, but a lot wiser.  The Writers' Police Academy will do that to you.

This was my second year attending, and once again Lee Lofland (buy his book) and crew put together an informative and exciting weekend.  Also, thanks to the sponsorship of Sisters in Crime, this is a very low cost event for members of that organization.

After spending a jam packed weekend learning about SWAT teams and  criminal drug interdiction, watching live demonstrations of bombs being detonated, EMS responding to a mass bombing scenario, and a felony vehicle stop, and even investigating an alleged sexual assault incident, it's a bit of an adrenaline crash when it's all over.

This was the "weapon" used in our sexual assault investigation

Add to that a couple of famous authors such as Lisa Gardner and Kathy Reichs, not to mention being surrounded by about two hundred other writers, and my brain is still trying to absorb it all.

Great book by the way, I just finished it last night.

So it's not surprising that when I heard a loud boom while at work this afternoon, I had to go investigate.

Truck on the right ran a red light and T-boned the white car

I believe my coworkers now think I'm a little weirder too, as I delightedly provided answers to their musings about why there were so many fire trucks there (thanks Tim Fitts) and who was doing what.  And when they broke out one of these....

It was hard to restrain myself from informing everyone that it was called a Hurst tool by those who use it, not "jaws of life".  In fact, I may not have been able to completely restrain myself from telling at least a couple of people.   Fortunately, its presence was an unnecessary precaution, and the driver was ultimately able to leave the vehicle through the passenger door.

We all went back to our normal routines, but already I was wondering.....where could the guy in the green truck have been going in such a hurry when he ran that red light?

Crawling Back Into the Light

Darcy demonstrates my recent desire to curl up and hide from the world

The General Assembly finally adjourned in late July.  Since then, it's been a mixture of trying to figure out exactly what the hell happened the last few weeks of the session and recover my mental and physical equilibrium.  Throw in a few health issues with my father, and it's been an up and down few weeks.

Things finally seem to be settling down a bit and I've been thinking once again about working on goals and doing some things I want to do outside of work. That includes writing here again at least more often than every 7 months.

I've been working on a couple of writing projects off and on, including the book I've been trying to write for well over a year now.  I attended the 2013 Writers' Police Academy last weekend, but that amazing event deserves its own separate post, so look for that sometime around this weekend.

I haven't had as much time for knitting or reading the past few months, but I have done some of both.  My 2013 books read list is up to date if you care to see what I've read lately.  I'm woefully behind on my goal to knit 13 pairs of socks in 2013, and I doubt I'll meet that goal, but I have finished a few pair.  I also just bought a spinning wheel, so I may have some things to say about that as I get to know my wheel better.

So if any or all of that interests you (and assuming there is anyone who still checks to see if I've posted anything) please check back in soon!