My tenants are frantic. Strangers forced open my rolling driveway gate and are attempting to steal my tenants newer cars. The police station is located on the corner cross street, down some 5 blocks. The police moving in Krispy Kreme Donuts mode (slow) are less than 2 minutes away.. With the lights and siren blasting, maybe 30 seconds out!

The police dispatch, grossly under staffed, can not answer "Police Emergency Calls" with no guarantee getting a live operator within hours. A medical emergency has a numbered prompt, and will be answered within a few minutes.

My tenants asked me what to do? So I give them permission to trigger my "alarm" system. A PA system with a 120 dBA audio noise maker with a strobe light in front of the property for easy detection. Tenants flip the switch which wakes up the entire neighborhood.

Then tenants, neighbors and even passerby call the police non-emergency number, the North Hollywood Police Front Desk and get a live officer quickly. Because car alarms going off for more than 2 minutes, should automatically shut off and reset, a ticket is given for over $200. This get the attention of the police and they send out a "Sound" enforcer. A regular cop with a book of sound tickets.

The police show up and one thief is driving away in my tenants 2 year old Honda. The police don't care about a stolen car, but instead go to issue me, the owner a sound violation ticket.

I wish I had grabbed a sweet potato pie. I got one of those once by accident and fell in love.

I still like pumpkin pie tho.

Mine is making marionberry pie and lemon meringue pie. She asked if I wanted pumpkin pie and I was like “no thank you, I’m the only one that will eat it”….so now there’s a pumpkin pie cooking as well. But the little one doesn’t like pie, so she’s baking a cake as well.

Pumpkin cheesecake with sour cream topping, mmmmm!

Today's forecast

1) lake effect snow

2) three bean salad with those crunchies

3) a nap

4) Another ticket issued to Robert

5) football

I couldn't live in CA. Too much drama. We try to learn from our mistakes. And the biggest one you're making is you're still there.

Robert, a few years ago, when driving to my daughter’s house in Milwaukee, I saw a Jeep Cherokee crash into a tree at the corner of her street. About five kids, probably no older than fourteen, scramble out of the vehicle. I called 911, and carefully followed the kids. They did not appear to be armed, and I don’t carry. As I am describing the situation to the operator, and I tell the operator I saw which house a couple of them entered, operator realized I was following them. It was about ten AM on a Sunday, so very little street traffic. Operator became just frantic, almost apoplectic that I was following them. The last kid I followed across a street, and saw him go into a backyard. Again, operator was clear: do not follow, do not describe them, do not describe where they went. Instead operator was asking for and possibly pulling up MY information. I said if the operator did not want information about the accident, the theft of the vehicle, or the location of ‘the crew’ then we were done, and I hung up. Operator called right back, like a dope, I answered, and operator went on again and again how I should not follow, and did I have weapons? I said if you don’t want information about the kids, the car, or the location, we were done, and I hung up again. I became suspicious during the first call that IF any police showed up, they would be coming after ME, not after the brats who took a hard-working family’s vehicle vehicle on a joy ride, endangering other drivers, and damaging that vehicle, and the tree. The working person who was NOT going to find their Jeep in the parking lot for work Monday morning was NOT the operator’s concern. So, when I hung up the first time, I started heading OUT of Milwaukee county, driving carefully, and at just under speed limit, so as not to attract attention. When the operator called back, I was nearing the county line. Operator called back again, this time I simply kept driving until I was well past county line. Then I answered, operator was clearly agitated, said I should not hang up on operator. I said I was no longer in Milwaukee county, the operator clearly did not care about the theft, the danger to other drivers or loss of property, and operator could eff off. And I hung up. Operator did not call back.

Went back to my daughter’s about an hour later. This time, two police officers were at the crashed car. I stopped, gave them details, they took notes, thanked me, and stopped short of making derogatory remarks about the 911 operator, but said something about being frustrated as well.

This was just prior to ‘Kia-boyz’ becoming such a bug thing in Milwaukee. But, it certainly was policies/operators like this who allowed Kia boyz to become so aggressive. It wasn’t until Kia boyz got so aggressive, with guns in people’s faces that the city seemed to wake up. But, I bet that operator would still do things the same way to this day. Just this week, another tree and the stop sign was knocked over at that same corner in my daughter’s neighborhood. Pile of car parts left on the lawn.

Ray, a two nap day shows that you really did take a day off work.