Douglas E. Berry

Accomplished today, after I spent Monday being a slug.

- All the dishes are done.

- Mopped the kitchen floor, which really needs to be a weekly thing.

_ Got the garbage bins out to the curb after we forgot to do that last night.

- Since I'm going back to work next week, I also got about 3,700 steps and 8 of 10 active hours.

- Tomorrow I'm planning on going down to Central Park for a good, long walk and to see how much water is in Saratoga Creek. Expect video. I',m also going to try to get in vacuuming the entry and the hallway.

- The green "gas bubble in eye" wristband fell off sometime last night. No idea where it landed. It's probably lurking in the bed somewhere.

- Taco Tuesday is about to happen!

I realize that I have been somewhat remiss in keeping all of you up to date on the whirlwind of strangeness that is my life. So we'll consider this a Spring Cleaning catch-up post. Because I know all y'all are just dying to know the latest details of my daily activities. Or not.

We'll begin with the new entertainment center. Wow. Getting the new TV (on sale), the soundbar (on sale), and a refurbished Xbox One and a couple of games has proven to be a great move. We watched Captain America - Civil War (aka Avengers 2.5) and it was theater quality. Now that the Xbox is hooked up we can watch DVDs and Blu-Rays in the proper aspect ratio. We've started Jessica Jones season 2. Carrie Ann Moss deserves an Emmy for her role in this series.

One the gaming side, I'm still working my way through the training drills in Madden. Learning the complex combination of buttons, levers, and triggers to properly execute a maneuver is difficult. But I'm plugging along, running drill sections over and over until I get it right.

Therapy is going well. The Mirtazapine has really helped with my depression. I've taken steps to increase my self-awareness and finding the balance between my logical mind and my emotional reactions. I'm finishing up with Dr. Dahl sometime in the next few weeks and will be moving to a different environment where I will work on the root causes of my depression and PTSD.

My goal is to get to a point where I can work a little. I'm thinking, and Kirsten agrees, that something like DoorDash would be ideal. I can sign in for a few hours when I feel up to it, and make a little extra money. That's still a way down the road, though, but I have a goal to work towards, and that's always good.

In fandom, I owe Chris Garcia several articles, which are being worked on, I swear. I've been invited to co-edit the triumphant return of The Drink Tank with an issue about the intersection of Horror and Heavy Metal. An interesting topic. I've also learned that several people have listed me as someone who should be nominated for the Best Fan Writer Hugo Award, which is a bit of a shock. Seriously doubt I'm well-known enough to make the finalists, but this is fandom, anything can happen!

Coming up I'm a panelist at Baycon since I'm a Prominent Local Gadfly and the Leading Voice in Left-Handed and Missing All Your Teeth Science Fiction. Some good ideas out for panels this year, and a great guest list. Everyone should come to the con! After that comes Worldcon 76, being held in San Jose. I've volunteered to work with publications, and right now I'm stuck waiting for a spreadsheet of downtown restaurants so I can start bashing out the restaurant guide. I hope to have a leading position on the newsletter at the con.

Of course, if the universe goes pear-shaped and I'm a Hugo Award Finalist, I won't be available to write the special edition of the newsletter announcing the winners, as Kiri and I will be seated in the nominees' seats. Halford's Stompy Boots, I'm not expecting it, but it would be so cool!

Then, hard on the heels of working the con, we turn around an immediately start packing That Thing In The Desert. This is why I'm being such a pain about organizing *now* so when it's time to go, we have a load plan, an inventory, and everything in the right place.

But now the big news. For the last few weeks, I've been part of the Santa Clara Police Department's Citizen's Police Academy. This is a 12-week program designed to teach residents about how the police department works from top to bottom. There are 22 people in our class and we come from all walks of life. We have one of our city councilmembers, a few business owners, one young man interested in becoming an officer but he wanted to do this first to see how it works . . . all these different folks and we're all getting along great.

The first week we toured the station. We met and learned from a couple of our SWAT officers and got to look at their tools and vehicles, got a brief rundown of the motorcycle team and the K-9 units, and met with the hostage negotiation officers and toured their command vehicle, which is the old library bookmobile. Inside, we toured the records office, had a brief look at dispatch, and got to look at our holding cells. Santa Clara is one of the few agencies in the county who maintain their own set of cells. They are mostly used for drunks and disturbing the peace types.

Second week and we heard from recruiting (want to be a police officer? Records worker? SCPD is hiring!); the reserve officer, who is also a battalion chief with our fire department, who runs the bicycle unit. Those cops, many of whom are reserves, spend a lot of time at Levi's Stadium. They have to be able to ride up stairs.

A very interesting lecture can from the officer who has been the Internal Affairs lead for three years. Forget everything you've seen in the movies, IA investigations and professional and thorough.

As part of the course we all got to sit along in dispatch. I did that yesterday, and it was fascinating. Seeing the flow of information not just from phone-dispatcher-officer, but just how complex the dance is when you are coordinating patrol units, motor officers, community service officers, and supervisors.

Coming up in April we will be scheduled for ride-alongs with a beat patrol unit. Santa Clara has almost completely switched over to SUVs for beat cops, be interesting to see the inside. On Saturday, April 7th, we have a long day. The class will be split into two groups. Each group will do two blocks of training. We will be taught how to do vehicle stops; from minor traffic violations to felony stops where the subjects may be armed. The other block is range time. We will be instructed on the standard weapons the department uses. Glock pistols, Shotgun, and M-4 carbines. As it has been a long time since I fired anything, I'm really looking forward to this.

So, what's happening in your lives?