March 13, 2020: The Start of the Covid Pandemic

My Mom and I had gone shopping at the Woodland Mall in Grand Rapids.    There were hardly any people in the mall. I took pictures of the nearly empty mall, as I knew this would rarely happen.   I wasn't worried about Covid across the world, as I didn't think it would affect me. 

Mom and I also went to the Old Goat Restaurant in Grand Rapids which was delicious.

Then, we went to the Leigh store by Talbots on Burton St.    I was wandering around the upscale store.    My coworker, Angie Cregg, called me on the phone to tell me something big was going to happen at work.      She swore me to secrecy.     We were texting back and forth.   Then, the big email came out from the Administrator saying the County Offices would be closing the following Monday for 2 weeks, as the Covid disease was starting to hit Michigan and people were not sure about this new disease.     At first, I thought it was so awesome to not have to go to work for 2 weeks.   Another week went by and we were told only essential services would be open which included the Sheriff's department which made me so mad, as I saw all of the other departments closed.  I didn't think it was fair to us.   In the beginning, Angie and I worked two days a week.   This happened for about 2 weeks.   Then, we got further emails asking us to be at work every day, but we couldn't be at work the same time.    It was one week on and one week off.   Each of us had to do the other person's jobs while we were in the office and I thought there is no way we could do that with the amount of customers we had in our office.   Angie was doing the Freedom of Information Requests and impounds and I was doing the criminal histories, jail files, and background checks.      

We were given this special spray to spray down everything in the office which we did everyday.    I still wasn't too worried about this unknown disease.    On the other hand, my coworker Angie was deathly afraid of getting it, so she wanted our mail to be put in different rooms of the office each day and then we would give it to the inmates.   I thought that was such a dumb thing to do.  I wasn't going to spray down the mail and everything and move mail to a different room each day, but we did it for a short time.   

The Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, would give updates on the TV about the number of new positive Covid cases, as well as the number of deaths.    

August 16, 2019: Ernest Hemingway Bus Trip

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June 30, 2019: Ride Along

I had been looking forward to doing my ride along with a City of Muskegon police officer.   I was supposed to ride with Chad Wilson, but he got tied up with a call so I rode with Deputy Logan Copeyon.   He is 21 years old.   He has worked for the City for almost 2 years.   Starting salary is around $43,000 and after 4 years, they make $69,000.   

Our first call was a medical call at a gas station.   Each officer has a neighborhood they are assigned to for road patrol.  Logan’s area was 117 which is the central city near Wood St and Irwin.    The officer has to log each call, as well as write a report that is reviewed by a command officer.   

We stopped at liquor stores known for drug activity and used binoculars to look at license plates and run the plates in LEIN to see if they had insurance or any warrants.   If one person had no insurance, we would drive after them real fast and put on the flashers to stop them and give them a ticket.   

We got a call for a violation of a PPO order, stopped to serve a subpoena on someone, and arrested a girl and drove her to jail so I saw part of the booking process.  It was quite an interesting evening.   I know I couldn’t do that job.  You don’t know what kind of situations you will get into.   My shift was from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.  The officers do 12 hour shifts.   

May 29, 2019: Graduation from Citizen’s Police Academy

My friend Rhonda Collins and I graduated from Citizen’s Police Academy at the City of Muskegon.  It was a 10 week class held on Wednesday nights.  We took a tour of Central Dispatch, the County Jail, and learned about road patrol.   

April 2019: CItizens Police Academy

My co-worker, Angie Cregg, mentioned to me that there is a Citizen’s Police Academy class offered through the City of Muskegon so I thought it sounded interesting.   I told my friend, Rhonda Collins about it and she was nterested in it so all three of us signed up for the class.   Originally, we signed up for the fall session but it got cancelled due to not enough people signing up.   I was happy when the class was a go for this spring.   It’s a 10 week class that’s meets every Wednesday night from 6-9.  At the end of the class, we have the opportunity to ride with an officer for his shift which is what I am looking forward to doing.   Our first class was a visit to Central Dispatch.  We learned about the operations and that there is a year long training before you become a dispatcher.  I think this job would have to be a high stress job.  Each dispatcher alone has 5 computer monitors on their desk long with a telephone and responds to our 911 calls.  The first thing you always want to give the dispatcher is the location of your incident.  Tonight, we learned about traffic stops and what to do for them.   Police should mark their hand on the suspects trunk so the DNA is present in case they are shot.   That shows who responded to the incident.  Also, stand near the car so you can see what’s inside the car such as weapons and drugs.   There is a lot to think about when you are an officer.  It truly is not an easy job.  

March 2019: 2019 Honda CRV

I went into the Honda Dealership for a car wash and came out with a 2019 Honda CRV Touring edition.   Mom has wanted to turn in her car for a while and not have car payments so we decided to share a car again.  We both turned in our cars for this new car and plan to keep it u til the warranty expires in 8 years.   This CRV is my dream car so I was quite happy being able to get this one.  It has all the bells and whistles.   It has remote start, heated seats, Honda Lane Watch, Navigation built in, moon roof, and Sirius XM radio.    It really is a fun car to drive and feels safer than the cars we turned in.  

July 27, 2018: 25th High School Class Reunion

Today was my 25th high school class reunion.  There have been so many changes in our lives in 25 years.   There were about 50 classmates out of close to 300 who came to the reunion.  In the afternoon, Molly Piersema and I went to Crystal McWilliams Hall’s house for a small gathering.   Sarah Meisch, Missy Hawrysz, Crystal, Molly, and I came to the party.   I found out that Sarah Meisch was diagnosed with terminal cancer in April and given 6 months to live.   It’s very sad to hear about f someone so young suffering no from cancer.   She was a great writer and lived in Philadelphia for a short time before coming back to Muskegon.    
Then, we picked up Sue Arnouts and went to the reunion which was on the World War II ship LST in downtown Muskegon.   
Joe Kinnucan provided the music and Jason Mumford provided some of the food.   The people who came were:  Crystal McWilliams, Lezleigh Berkel, Stasia Kurtz, Molly Piersema, Sue Arnouts, Mark Douglas, Charles Bengston, Seth Vanhoeven, Andy Bitzer, Dan Burlingame, Jon Huizenga, Mandy Roczyki, Lisa Wolters, Jens Carlson, Brent Hylland, Adam Sobczok, Julie Courim, Jill Koniarski, Dana Jenson, Jason Thielbar, Anne Whittington, Matt Kuzyck, Aaron Tracy, Ivan Ivanov, and me.   I’m sure I forgot a few people who I don’t remember.  
Had an interesting conversation with Andy Bitzer whom I have never talked to before.   He’s a loner and was like that in high school.   He’s unemployed and lives in Roosevelt Park.   He said he doesn’t really like to be around lots of people and prefers to be home.  He asked if I remembered him flicking off in the last reunion photo.   It was quite a funny conversation.
During the reunion, I heard a big crash.  Matt Kuzyck fell back head first onto the hard ground on the boat.  He fell pretty hard and lost his pulse.  Luckily, Joe Kinnucan, who is a firefighter, resuscitated him.   Adam called 911 and the fire truck and ambulance came within minutes.  It was quite a scare to see.  I found out later that he was diagnosed some time ago with Parkinson’s.    
At night, we let off some Chinese lanterns in memory of the students who have passed away which were Joe Wadsworth, Renee Wilbur, and Troy Vanderstelt.  They had a hard time getting the lanterns to fly.  I thought we would catch the boat on fire and have to call emergency again.   
It was nice to see everyone but sad to see Matt collapse and hear about Sarah.  It made me realize just how short life can be and to make sure to do the things you want now and not wait until retirement.