I have good news, bad news, and confusing news.
The good news. D32 is seeing somebody new. He's the son of an old friend of mine. I don't know him well but his parents are very nice people, very industrious and with a lot of integrity. They've only been seeing each other for about a week and during that time he's repaired several things around her house. This is a big deal because D32's last few friends were lazy and did next to nothing to help her and it used to really bother her. This is the first guy she's seen in a long time who I think could be a keeper.
The bad news. GD14 has attracted a predator. She wanted to leave the Fire Department annual dinner last Saturday night right after finishing the meal so we left. On the way home she told me that one of the guys there, a 19 year old new recruit, had been bothering her for a long time by sending her messages. She had told him to stop and when he kept doing it at school she talked to someone and the Principal had told him to stop. But he had kept on doing it and he did it Saturday night at the dinner. Plus she said he had been staring at her and it made her very uncomfortable.
I did some checking and found this kid has a history of harassing girls after being told to leave them alone, had been observed following a 14 year old girl and trying to get her into his car, and had even harassed my good friend on the ambulance crew. I also found that there was some talk about him having been charged with sexual assault. I spoke with D32 and GD14 and found out this has been going on for quite a while. GD14 said she keeps blocking his phone number and soon after he'll call from a different one. D32 said when she worked in a local retail store the boy's father would come in to the store and pull the same stuff with her so I decided it had gone on for long enough.
After I had learned as much as I could about his background I wrote a cease and desist letter. In the letter I stated that GD14 is only 14 years old, that he had been asked to stop contacting her, yet he continued to contact her and it was causing her significant emotional distress. I told him GD14 wants him to stop and her mother wants him to stop. I also stated that the appropriate authorities had been notified and would be asked to take appropriate actions if he continued to contact GD14.
I spoke with a friend who is one of the assistant chiefs and he told me there had been some concern about bringing this kid into the FD, they had decided to take a chance, but that he was warned that if there were any problems he'd be out of the FD. My friend asked me to keep hiim updated.
The ambulance squad in most of the neighboring towns is a part of the FD but in my town we're a part of the PD. I like that because I like working for the PD, I like being on a first name basis with the local cops, and I like having the police chief for a boss. I went to see my boss today. I showed him the letter and he thought it was great. He said this kid is a real creep and that they've had 7 or 8 complaints about him. He thought the letter was great, he asked for a copy of it for his files, and he told me to keep him updated and if we have any more problems he said to let him know.
We had a fire training exercise tonight and I confronted the boy shortly after the exercise. One of my friends is a distant relative of my grandsons so I asked him to join us to witness that the boy had received the notice.This guy is about 6'5" with a sturdy build and he's a little bit crazy so i was glad he joined me. I gave the kid the letter and he played innocent, claiming that he didn't know GD14 wanted him to stop. I told him that it didn't matter, that he was being told now to stop and it had better stop. He also wanted to know if it was just between the three of us. I told him no, the fire chief and the police chief both knew what was going on and they were monitoring the situation. Now we wait and see what happens.
The confusing. D32 posted a FB banner this morning that said:
"I didn't become an EMT to get a front-row seat to other people's tragedies. I did it because I knew the world was bleeding and so was I, and somewhere inside I knew the only way to stop my own bleeding was to learn how to stop someone else's."
She also wrote some nice stuff about how proud she was that I'm her dad. The confusing part? The first person to Like this post that is very complementary towards me was the evil sister. the woman who was telling my wife two years ago that she has a right to be happy and if I didn't make her happy and this other guy did that she should be with him. Maybe I'm not the bad guy I used to be.
The fire training exercise tonight was interesting. I went into the fire tower, a two story concrete block building with a huge, smoky fire burning inside. When you go inside you wear turnout gear and an air pack and you wear a full face air mask. The gear weighs almost 50 lbs, it's hot inside, especially with all of the gear you're wearing, and the smoke is so thick you can't see anything. After I came out several of my friends asked how I liked it? I think I'd rather do that than go to divorce court tomorrow.
We have a big ladder truck and I had a chance to play with positioning the ladder. Then they put the ladder out about 50 feet with the tip around 30 feet off the ground and my friend and I climbed out to within about 10 ft. of the end. All-in-all, every little boy's fantasy day.
Tomorrow at 2:30pm is my court appointment with my honey. Thirteen hours and thirteen more minutes. Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers.
Catching Up, Still Confused
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