Loved the Drive-Ins

As a kid, I used to love going to the Drive-In Theater.  I think back now on all the movies we saw at the Drive-Ins as kids.  Some became classics, others, most might not even remember.  But I remember that we would usually go to the 40 East Drive-In out on East Main St. in Reynoldsburg.  That area is now the home of the State Fire Academy, but back then it was a chance to go out and see a couple of movies at a reasonable price.

We would take lawn chairs and sit out next to the car.  Back then you had the speaker that hung on the window, and while those still exist, the few drive-ins that still remain, also broadcast the sound over your radio.

But I remember some of the movies we saw at the Drive-Ins when I was a kid.  Any of these familiar?

There were more movies that we saw, and they weren't all at the 40 East Drive-In, but it was fun to go.

And who can forget?

Let's Get This Party Started

Well, as expected, 2014 has already been a year of changes.  On the running front, only one true change, and that was realizing that the Marathon I intended to run on March 1 is not going to happen.  My training being what it is, I know that I can not adequately prepare for a full marathon, so I changed my registration and will run the Phoenix Half Marathon on March 1.  I look forward to doing a little site seeing while I'm in Arizona.  Hopefully getting a chance to visit with a cousin while I'm out there, and enjoy the race.

At work, as I type this blog entry, we're completing our second full day of dispatching for our newest partner, the Hilliard Police Dept.  The process of taking on the dispatching of a second police dept. has been in the works for quite some time.  There was a lot of concern among those that would be directly effected by the changes, as well as those who really weren't effected by the changes.  From my vantage point, it appears that the transition has gone well.  We'll be working hard for a little while to get our staffing level up, and in the mean time, time off of our regular schedule will be more limited than we've seen for a while and overtime opportunities will be plentiful.

My running schedule for 2014 is pretty full and with plenty of "destination runs" on the calendar.  If all goes well, I'll be traveling to Arizona, Tennessee, Nebraska, Virginia, California and Florida for Half Marathons this year.  I'll also be running at least one half marathon in Columbus.  In October I am leaning towards running here in Columbus again, but have not ruled out running in St. Louis, MO that same weekend.  However, with six destination races already scheduled and a goal this year of putting at least three months of expenses in to my savings for emergencies, I will probably not add yet another destination race to this year's schedule.

I surpassed my goal last year of running 1,000 miles.  By year's end I had logged over 1200 miles of running for the year.  Running that many miles was the equivalent of running from my house in Columbus, to Miami, FL, completing the Miami Marathon while I was there and still having some miles to spare.  This year I'm shooting for 1350 miles of running, which means logging 112.5 miles a month on average.

Work will continue to see change this year.  While the transition is, for the most part, complete, we still have to get used to each other. We also need to get new people hired and trained in order to make sure our staffing levels are able to handle double the activity we've handled in the past, without burning out the current staff of dispatchers.  We're in a good spot right now in that area.  Our current trainee has been doing well and is taking to the job.  She is nearing the end of her training and will be joining staffing soon.  We also have conditional offers out to four other applicants and hope to have those people on board and in training in the near future.  That still leaves room for us to hire two more dispatchers on top of that.  In the mean time, I'm more than happy to pick up some overtime when I can and run to keep the stress levels in check.

I worked the Hilliard Police channel on our first night of dispatching for our newest partner.  For me it went smoothly.  They said things on the air a little differently than I'm used to, and I'm sure I did things a little differently than the way they're used to hearing things.  However, part of why I wanted to dispatch Hilliard on their first night with us was to hone my own skills.  I've been doing the job for 16 years now, and I do catch myself getting a little lax in some areas.  Dispatching for the "new guys" helped me to make sure I was focusing on the little things and being alert to anything that may be said on the radio, and in this job I've got to make sure I'm not taking anything for granted.  At the same time, I'm enjoying the changes because it keeps things fresh, it keeps things interesting and as long as we continue to grow and take on new challenges here it means that in a time when a lot of agencies are cutting back, my job is still pretty secure.  I'll take the stress that comes with growing over the stress that comes with shrinking any day.