Gearing Up

Okay, so I need to come clean: I began this blog four months ago when it looked like my husband would be going to the academy in a matter of weeks. But as an example of the economic climate we're in right now, they had to keep canceling academy classes! They don't have enough new recruits to keep it going. Police departments all over the state have hiring freezes, and the ones that are hiring are only taking laterals. So JT had to wait for an academy class to open up again, and two weeks ago he finally got the word that it will be happening in August.

Throughout this time, JT has been training hard. He's been running four to six miles a day, up hills and down, in ninety degree weather sometimes. He has all sorts of speeches he has to memorize verbatim, including the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics and his department's mission statement. He even has to practice a long list of spelling words (as the resident writer in the family I'm helping him with that part).

Meanwhile, I've been back at work part-time and raising our little daughter. She was a newborn when I started this, and I quickly discovered how foolish I was to think I'd have any time to write. I didn't have much to report here, anyway, as academy kept getting pushed back farther and farther. So this blog got pushed WAY to the bottom of my priorities list, as sleeping, eating, and mastering the difficult art of breastfeeding crowded the top. Now that she is sleeping through the night, I'm beginning to get into more of a routine, so I've decided maybe I can write this blog after all.

JT is very excited to be starting soon. The other day, I shaved his head for him. He kept telling me, like a Buddhist novice on his ordination day: "It's just an attachment to hair. Just have to let go." I keep looking over at him expecting to see a thick head of dark hair, and am continually surprised by its absence.

JT will be going to a "pre-academy," a sort of two-week orientation for the academy that will teach him all the inane, mind-numbing drills he will have to learn if he doesn't want to get screamed at like a scene from Full Metal Jacket. His department is anxious to send him fully prepared, and yesterday they took him out to buy all his equipment. He came home with the following:

• California Penal Code
• California Vehicle Code
• Criminal Law and Evidence & P.C. 832
• California Criminal Law and Evidence Flash Cards
  
• A "logistics bag" for all his gear
• Two caps with visors
• Safety goggles (for the shooting range)
• Two keyless padlocks
• Two report writing templates (these are really strange: they're like stencils and all I can figure is that you're supposed to use them to keep your letters small or something)
• Lettering stencils (for creating a sign or something)
• A tie clip
• A gun cleaning kit
• A baton (the long one--he was rather disappointed not to be getting the short one that flips out)
  
• His "Batman belt" (as he calls it), consisting of: two sets of handcuffs, cases for carrying them, gun holsters, magazine pouch, and baton ring

He also got fitted for a uniform, and is excited to be getting some shiny "cheat" shoes. They're boots that you don't have to shine, so that takes one thing off of his (or rather, my) daily to-do list!