Wicked Witch Hunt

Class 252 got back into the swing of things after the 3-day break. Tuesday was the basic classroom sessions and Wednesday was another athletic challenge and enrichment speaker. The challenge this week was called the "Wicked Witch Hunt" which began with a 1/2 mile run, followed by a set of 20 lunges, off on another run, followed by a set of 25 pushup on the side of the road, another run, another exercise (bear crawls up and down a hill x 3, another run to the parking garage, up the garage steps to the top level, 20 burpies (up and downs...you feel the effect of these rather quickly), a run back to the track, backward bear crawl up a steep embankment followed by "dive bomber pushups" over a trench, then about a 200 meter sprint to the finish. Everyone eventually finished. It's always good to be in the middle of the pack and "represent" for us older guys!!

The enrichment speaker was Bobby Smith, a Louisiana trooper who was shot in the face and blinded in 1986 by a dope dealer. Smith has been involved in helping officers through traumatic incidents and uses his life experiences (he has lost both his son and daughter to tragic incidents since his shooting) to get his message out. His book, Visions of Courage is a good read.

I was following the weather forecast for the Omaha metro where they were calling for the end of the world (10+ inches of snow). It was entertaining to see the hype was overdone again by the weather people. How do they keep their jobs??

I have commented several times about the PT class and the medieval methods of torture EJ O'Malley uses to bring pain to my body. Today, another chapter. Four stations, 50 seconds each x 4 (16 total) followed by sprints on the track. He has a point when he says you get what you put into a workout. If you dog it, why bother?? Police officers in 2013 should all be "21st Century Tactical Athletes"...which is a combination of being in good physical and mental shape to do the job. A good workout plan combined with decent nutrition is the key. Weight loss is pretty much easily done by eating the right foods (including the ones you like) but having smaller portions....combined with exercise.

If anyone reading this is a future NA student, enroll in the Forensics class with Buddy McGinnis. Forensics sounds intimidating; however this is an overview course and has been very enlightening. Buddy even made the presentation on "tool impressions" interesting. His delivery and wit is well received. The guy knows his stuff. It is AMAZING what science can do in the world of crime scene investigation. Next week is a presentation on underwater evidence recovery.

Interesting conversation of the day included a discussion with a guy from the North Carolina Dept. of Fish and Game who was telling a story about poachers shooting bears in order to cut out the bear's gall bladder.. Evidently there's a black market for medical use in Russia and some people ingest the gallbladders as an aphrodisiac.

To some of the people here the gall bladder might taste better than the cafeteria food at this point.