April 2024. Blues Vol 40 No. 4

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESK First time I have nothing to say, well maybe that’s not true. 6 The Blues - April ‘24 For the first and only time in 40 years, I really don’t have much to say for this month’s column. Well, that’s not true. I have a lot I could say, but I’m close to selling my house and I’m trying to pack and go through what goes to the new house and what goes in the trash. When you’ve lived in your current residence for nearly 15 years, you have no idea how much crap you have accumulated until you start packing. There must be other retired officers out there that keep all kinds of junk with the mindset that “hey I’d better hang on to that in case I need it someday.” For instance, I found a huge box of cables and cords. Power cords, USB cables, audio cables, old coaxial cables, etc. I have no idea what the hell any of it goes to or why I would have saved any of it for 15 years. Trash. In the garage I found a floor jack that leaks and won’t stay up. (No ED jokes please) Parts for various old cars I no longer own, such as a 2018 Dodge Charger. For that car I have: an upper grill; airbox and ram air; custom valve covers; a carbon fiber cover for the windshield washer tank; and a brandnew set of 3D Floor Mats. Speaking of floor mats, I have front mats for a Jeep Wrangler and a Cargo Mat to match. I have a couple bikes that haven’t been ridden since George Bush was president, dirt bikes that all have bad gas, a couple of electric scooters (who knows where the chargers are) a couple of old filing cabinets, and lots of cans of old paint, bug spray and God knows what else. If you live near me, I suggest you make late-night runs by my house on Thursday nights, just before Friday’s heavy trash day. There’s no telling what you might find at the curb. So, while I’m trying to sort out the logistics of moving to a temporary home while our new home is being built, there was a moment I thought there might not be an April 2024 Issue. (kinda like the non existent 1983 Corvette.) Just skip a month! But in the 40-year history of the Blues, some 483 issues to be exact, we have NEVER missed an issue. Every single month since 1984, we have always published something. Not every month was spectacular or contained award-winning material, and perhaps some were even boring. But nevertheless, a copy of The BLUES was delivered like clockwork to police departments all across Texas. I run into officers every week that say “I remember the BLUES arriving at the station the first of every month. They would be stacked up in the roll call room and every officer would grab one and totally ignore the sergeants briefing while they scanned the pages to see if someone they knew was the recipient of the Light Bulb Award.” So, skipping an issue was certainly not in the cards. Therefore, if this issue was a little late, now you know why. Finally let me close with this. If we haven’t thanked every one of you for reading this magazine, let me say THANK YOU. We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the thousands of officers that grew up with the BLUES. And if you are one of the nearly 1.5 million new readers that just discovered us, I say “welcome aboard.”

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