As most of you know by now, the Dept of Children and Families Commissioner was arrested a few days ago and charged with SUSPICION of Driving Under the Influence (DUI).

click here for story

In all honesty, no one really knows the complete story in most of these DUI cases because the only information we have is from the Police.

As I have stated previously, you wonder if many of these people are IMPAIRED-which means you cannot operate a motor vehicle versus legally over the limit.

On Friday I went out and celebrated Barack Obama’s rise to the Presidency by hosting 10 people who joined me for dinner and drinks at the Waverly.

I DO drink but it is RARE. But when I do drink-I ALWAYS EAT FOOD. It makes a difference.

After everyone left, I went over to the bar and had a few more drinks. I usually drink beer which I did. I also had snacks to eat.  I had a few drinks with my spouse.

It is funny I saw some members of the Republican party at the Bar part of the Waverly. It was around 9 or 9:30 p,m. but by that time, my guests had left for the evening.

I am SURE I was legally intoxicated-BUT I WAS NOT IMPAIRED. I very well could have driven a motor vehicle-but my spouse who did not drink any alcohol that night-DROVE HOME.

But now that I think about it,  I probably SHOULD HAVE driven home because when Mr. Magoo drives, it looks like HE IS DRUNK!!

But, as I have posted previously-most field sobriety tests are NOT ACCURATE.

You are encouraged not to take that test. But, you DO have to submit to the chemical test or risk having your license suspended for a year.

I guess Ms. DCF Commissioner who is also an attorney, was not aware of the above information-either that  or she let the Police intimidate her.

Probably a little bit of both.

Here is a good article about what to do and what NOT to do if you are pulled over for suspicion of DUI.

click here

I think we all need the new “Flying Car” that was just made available to the public this week. Wouldn’t you love to be able to just get out of traffic jams with this?

Cough up $194,000!!

click here for story

Ok, I am through wallowing in self pity-so I will be writing this post-and the good news is-I DID get HealthNet to reconsider and approve me for a C-T Scan not an MRI. So next Thursday I will get nuked again.

What a difference the word “malpractice” makes!!

Anyway, a while back my husband had made a suggestion to the Board of Education that they implement electronic pay stubs to save money and save on paper waste.

Under this program, employers can view their stubs on line. Now my spouse who is a lot SLOWER in comprehending things than MOI, came home Thursday night and told me the Board of Education will be or is implementing this program. Unfortunately, my spouse heard Paul Calaluce say “January” so I don’t know if he meant the program will be in effect as of this January or next, but I do know they have taken up on my spouses suggestion which is a good thing.

Electronic Pay Stub Solution

I want to thank my pal Steve for helping me out with posting. He probably will be filling in for me next week because I know I will be a wreck until I find out the test results.

But even if I am on my death bed, or I DIE, I will attend the Police Department Budget Workshops so I can talk about my fave subject-THE POLICE CARS!!

As most of you know, many municipalities are eliminating or reducing the use of employee take home vehicles-Trumbull and Bridgeport being two such towns. Trumbull is cutting back drastically and Bridgeport will not be purchasing any new take home vehicles.

Cheshire?? No, they will make excuses and huff and puff about it.

Why don’t they give me ONE CAR-ONE, and I promise I will go away!!

DEAL??

Chief Cruess did make a statement to WFSB, can you believe it? I am SO HAPPY, regarding various police departments converting to smaller vehicles to save on gas usage. I did find and Steve did run the article about a Police Department in Illinois switching to the Pontiac Vibe which is a smaller engine (four cylinder) in comparison to the Ford Crown Vic which is a big (V-8).

For those of you know in the car know as I am-Toyota makes the Vibe for Pontiac. Its sister car is the Toyota Matrix.

But I know what I will hear from my pal Mike C.–”oh you know it just costs too much money to have to retrofit the computer console from the Crown Vics into a completely different model” or whatever.

Then umm, how come it wasn’t a problem “fitting” the computer console and the fire extinguisher and resuscitation equipment into that big Explorer gas guzzler and that other smaller SUV?? Those aren’t Crown Vics??

Anyway I am so proud of my Cheshire Policeey Department-I am acting like a proud mommie–they are actually communicating with the PUBLIC!! I really liked the fact that the Herald ran that surveillance photo of the people who allegedly stole the Barker animated figures.  GETTING ON THE RIGHT TRACK NOW HERALD!!

As Steve put in the last post, I am fairly certain that vehicle is a GMC Sierra with an external antenna.

Look, you only have so much good time and so much bad time-so don’t push it-for what goes around comes around.

So in all fairness to my pals in the center of town-here is a discussion on the “efficiency”of take home cars.

Click here

I hope you enjoyed the inauguration video of George Washington-and here is a trivia question-where did the first inauguration take place?

Click here to find out

Addendum: UTH is hoping to get the surveillance tape from the Cheshire Police Department showing the individuals who allegedly stole the three cartoon figurines from Barker Animation on Jan. 14th  between the hours of 8:08 and 8:14 p.m. If the tape is released UTH and possibly other websites can post this on their blogs. The story is in the Cheshire Herald.

Cindy believes the pickup truck in the Herald photo is a GMC Sierra.

Cindy does not feel like posting, which is understandable, so as her friend, I asked if I could help out because I knew she had some information she wanted to get out to the readers. I can’t be like Cindy, the way she writes, but I can help out from time to time as I did before several months ago.

I know Cindy will never give up the blog because she likes it so much-so even if she cannot write or doesn’t feel like it, she knows she has friends that will help her.

Luckily, I and her son and several other people she trusts do know how to navigate around WordPress and have access to her blog dashboard, so we will try to post at least a few times a week until she feels better. She is really worried and I don’t blame her. She probably will be fine as I and everyone else keeps telling her, but I understand her concern.

The first item she talked about was the Cheshire Community Pool. Cindy said she spoke to the Public Information Officer at the Cheshire Town Hall Town Managers office on Wednesday. She asked about something she had heard regarding the pool’s boilers.

Cindy said she had heard that the problem last week when a louver on the boiler did not work properly causing water to freeze and crack the boiler, was the tip of the iceberg.

Cindy said he heard all the boilers at the Community Pool are warped from the cold weather and it will cost approximately $200,000 to fix the problem.

Cindy said when she spoke to Public Information Officer she said that statement was not true and that the problem at the pool last week with the louver was paid for by the Town’s insurance.

Cindy said the Public Information Officer said the Town Manager would address this issue at the next Cheshire Council meeting.

Another item Cindy wanted me to link you to is an article she found regarding Police Departments across the country getting rid of the Crown Victoria Police cars and purchasing smaller more fuel efficient vehicles, and even electric vehicles.

Cindy asked to me to write that the Cheshire Police Department is off the hook for the time being because she is not in the mood to yell at them right now.

Police Dept. Fuel Efficient Cars

Related Story on Fuel Efficient Police Cars ft. Cheshire Police Chief Michael Cruess

Cheshire Police Monthly December Reports

Cindy wanted me to add that the Police Monthly Reports are better but still not where they should be, whatever that means but she said the Police know what she means.

Also, Cindy will be at the Waverly Restaurant celebrating Barack Obama’s rise to the Presidency and George W. Bush’s departure from the White House,  on Friday at 8:30 p.m.

All are invited.

She added that you have to pay for your own drinks because she is not a millionaire.

It really sounds strange, but probably the best thing that happened to me over the past month was falling in front of my home on New Year’s Eve Day because my part of the street wasn’t plowed.

Why am I saying this? In October, it seemed that every time I would sit down I felt like I was sitting on something.  I didn’t pay much attention to it because I have a slightly curved spine from birth and have had sciatica.

So, when I fell I decided to go to a Chiropractor for the pain. A few days ago, I went for an x-ray of my lower back-my lumbar region.

On Wednesday I went for treatment to my Chiropractor and she sat me down and told me I have what appears to be a tumor like growth in my lower spine.

I am going for a MRI next Thursday so the Doctors can get a closer look. Actually, I should be getting a C-T Scan but HealthNet WONT approve this proceedure which I don’t understand because an MRI is $1,800 and a C-T Scan is $800!!

But the C-T scan looks through bone and the MRI is meant for soft tissue-So I am going to pull the $800 out of my OWN POCKET and have a C-T scan also. Can you believe this? I have State of Connecticut Employees Health Insurance and I have to pay for my own C-T Scan.

I don’t know what more to say other than I will not be posting until I find out WHAT IS GOING ON!! The way my doctor keeps calling me and talking to me I will be upfront-it doesn’t sound good.

I will let you know what is going on. Right now I am shaking so bad I can’t even type. But what happens happens. Life is like that. Now this is all I think about-so I hope all of you can understand me not wanting to post at this time.

I know ALL of you saw the inauguration. I only saw about 20 minutes of it-I had meetings with clients so I really could not devote as much time to this event as I wanted to. From what I saw–it was very moving–we really take for granted in this country the smooth transition of power.

In many many lands what you saw on Tuesday, Jan. 20th is just a dream. In many countries, people cannot put aside their differences long enough to make a change as you saw today,

The transition was done with grace and dignity. And yes, we did get to see Bill Clinton with his mouth gaping open AGAIN!! I love Bill Clinton, and so do MOST of the American people.

I wondered if you noticed who GOT applause as they were entering the podium area for the swearing in and WHO DIDN’T!! Yep, it was the sound of silence for Bush 41 and Bush 43. There were loud cheers for Clinton and Carter. Let’s face it, Lynn Cheney got more applause than any of the Republican Presidents at the Ceremony!!

Dick Cheney looked like something out of a sci-fi movie in that wheelchair. Apparently he pulled a groin muscle moving some boxes!! You know how much exercise HE must be getting!! DAMN!!

I know the big talk was the “flub up” of the Presidential Oath. It wasn’t Obama-it was Chief Justice Roberts-he forgot to pause and Obama kept going–I guess that kept Fox News jumping for a while.

Boy was Obama nervous or what?? When I saw him walking down the hallway of the Capitol to the Inauguration podium he looked like he was going to CRY!! Can you imagine what he felt at that very moment?? We can only wonder.

Even Dubya took it in stride to his credit. He was joking and laughing with Obama and the crowds-I haven’t seen that many people in one place EVER!! And I have been just about EVERYWHERE!!

Amazing!! This is what is so remarkable about our country and why it will NEVER be defeated!! When push comes to shove, when the American people feel a challenge or feel their backs are against the wall-they put their differences aside and join together. NO other country can and will EVER BE ABLE TO PULL THIS DAY OFF!! Think about it.

So for today, I will be running some photos of the Inauguration and then on Wednesday, get back to business.

I know they had a Cheshire Board of Education budget meeting on Tuesday night at Highland School. My sore loser GOP husband went to the meeting so I will be reporting on it on Wednesday.

So to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th President, I will be at the Waverly BAR having a few celebratory drinks on Friday around 8;30 p.m. If it snows It will be postponed until the next Friday.

Come down and have a few drinks if you want to. I promise I won’t be too hard on the Republicans.  Will I see you there??

I am now running the CORRECTED version of Cheshire: Then & Now with the new photos. Enjoy.

Bush Booed at Inauguration

Obama: America-Grow Up!!

World Reacts to Obama Inauguration

MSNBC

Inauguration:Hits and Misses

Full Text: Obama’s Inaugural Address