dyawger's blog

Whether it's the military or law enforcement, boot camp or academy is no piece of cake. It's rigor with a capital R, designed to weed out those who aren't the most qualified physically or mentally. The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Regional Training Center, in partnership with San Joaquin Delta College, is graduating Police Academy Class 167 on Friday afternoon. A record 59 cadets out of 76 recruits competed 24 weeks of intense physical and mental training.

Sometimes it's obvious when folks are up to no good. There's no other spin you could give it. Case in point: Officers Eduardo Chavez and Jeffrey Gonzales of the Merced Police Department were on burglary patrol in South Merced the other day at 1:25 a.m. They came upon two 15-year-olds on South G Street. Even though temperatures were still fairly toasty, both boys were wearing black sweatshirts and one had black gloves. Not your normal summertime attire. One of the boys had two screwdrivers hiding in his waistband. Sgt. Rod Dash said Chavez and Gonzales received permission from one of the boy's fathers to search the kid's bedroom. They found about two grams of cocaine, a loaded Glock .45-caliber pistol and a loaded .25-caliber pistol. By the way, the Glock was stolen from Oroville. As the boys were being booked into Merced County Juvenile Hall, a latex glove fell out of one the suspect's pants legs. The boy told officers they were on their way to burglarize a home in the neighborhood.

Folks generally believe being a firefighter is a glamorous high-profile job. It's certainly a tremendous public service, a high calling, but we need to keep in mind much of what firefighters do is dirty, dangerous, physically demanding and exhausting work. As the race car drivers say, my hat's off to what our friends in the fire service regularly get called on to do.

That certainly was evident in two fires I reported about this week. Merced County firefighters spent many hours putting out a fire in a creekbed-ravine on Whealan Road in the Planada area Tuesday afternoon and evening and Merced city firefighters had their own struggles with a fire which destroyed a garage and apartment complex near West 18th and T streets Wednesday afternoon.

It's hard to imagine: Edward Umada Jr. of Merced never missed a day of school, from elementary school through high school. That's 2,340 days! When his surprise award was announced at Merced High School's graduation Wednesday night, Umada received a thunderous ovation from the crowd. It's not surprising that his younger sister, Serena, who graduated from Hoover Middle School this week, also has perfect attendance for 1,620 days of school.

You can always count on at least one surprise at a car show, even a local one where many of the rides are familiar sightings. Such was the case last Friday night when I drove by the monthly cruise night in the Lowe's parking lot on West Olive Avenue in North Merced. One glance and I was smitten!

One couldn't help but notice a bright yellow early 1960s Rambler American convertible. I've never seen that one before. The 1961-63 compact Ramblers were nearly identical and I didn't have time to get close enough to pinpoint the year or check it out in detail. The car appeared to be factory stock with whitewall tires. Starting in earnest in 1960, all the American automakers jumped on the bandwagon to offer a compact car. The first offerings in 1960 were the Ford Falcon, Mercury Comet, Plymouth Valiant and Chevrolet Corvair. Then in 1961 the Buick Special, Dodge Lancer, Oldsmobile Cutlass and Pontiac Le Mans joined the battle along with the totally restyled Rambler American. In 1962, the Chevrolet Nova and Mercury Meteor entered the ring. Gas was up to 32 cents a gallon about that time.

A stay in the hospital isn't necessarily something one equates with fun, but my recent three-day visit to Mercy Medical Center Merced certainly had its pleasurable moments. Looking back, it was a good experience even if it's not something I'm eager to repeat. All the nurses were kind, courteous, prompt, thorough, considerate, friendly and eager to make me comfortable--and that goes a long way to make things bearable. Thanks to anesthesia, I didn't feel a thing from the surgery, and postoperative discomfort didn't really settle in until I had gone home from the hospital. Thankfully, that's just about over.