Hot Shot

In some form or another, we all have our favorites in our workplace.  Whether it's our favorite boss, favorite team member, favorite administrative leader; there's always a favorite.  I believe it's just human nature to have favorites.  And today I will go as far as to say that the next Deputy that I am going to talk about is by far, my favorite. And today, we will refer to him as Hot Shot.   Now.....you can ask me all day long WHY he's my favorite but I won't be able to give you a definite answer.  From the very first day that I started this job, I noticed something about him that stood out.  And for the record, I have TRIED to convince myself that he is NOT my favorite anymore.  It can't stick.  He'll go and do something to make up for being an asshole and right back up on that pedestal he goes!

Maybe it's the fact that he comes off as more human than most.  Maybe not more human.  How the hell can someone be more human than another?  Maybe what I'm trying to say is he is more grounded than most.  I still haven't convinced myself that that is right but it's the closest thing I got to what I am trying to say.  Let me explain.  Remember in my other blogs when I said I kinda stood back and listened in because I didn't know these people and didn't know the people they were talking about?  Well, Hot Shot has never acted like that.  The first day I worked here, I had to go on a transport with him and all the way, he kept asking me questions about myself.  What my background was in Law Enforcement.  Why I wanted to do this job.  And he didn't ask me like it was an interview.  He asked me like he gave a shit.  Like maybe he really was interested in the answers. 

He was (and still is, for that matter) really good about filling me in on things around the community.  Asking me questions to see how good my knowledge of the county was (which pretty much sucked ass since I’m not from here) and things that I would need to know.  He is very knowledgeable when it comes to his job.  He can be sly when he wants to be but is usually pretty forth-coming about his intentions.  Like I said, he CAN be an asshole when he wants to be.  It's true.  Not that I can't be an asshole myself but I try not to be with him.  He is very respectable toward people.

And contained.  He keeps to himself and he doesn't talk "out of school."  Other than just fun things, he has never said a BAD word about anyone.  I could take a lesson from him in that area but why would I want to do that???  Geezus H, I have to have SOME fun in life, right?  He gives EVERYONE a chance and tries to make excuses for them.  Even the ones that maybe don't deserve an excuse.  But, like me, he believes that people should be given another chance.  And another if they need it.   

He has an awesome sense of humor.   Last year on my birthday, I was sicker than a dog.  I couldn't speak at all.  My throat was so swollen it was almost closed up and I had taken a sick day at work.  The only reason I got out of bed was to go to the couch and lay down.  It was trapping season and I didn't even have the energy to go out and check traps so my brother-in-law came and took Gee out to check the traps….. in my car.  I remember Hot Shot telling me a few days later that he was SURE he had caught me playing "hooky" from work and was going to pull up beside me when he saw my car at a stop sign but when he got up to it, found out it wasn't me in the car!  Too funny.  Don't know WHY he thought I would lie to my bosses about being sick.  He just doesn't give me enough credit, dammit.  Makes me wonder though.....how many times has HE played "hooky" from work.....?

 And he likes to look at dismembered pieces of the body as much as I do.  Okay well maybe he doesn't LIKE it but he likes to show stuff like that. I think he likes it though.  Hot Shot and I were very good, when I first started this job, at pushing each other's buttons.  My gawd that man could piss me off and then make me laugh about what I was just pissed off about.  Not fair.  But I have learned a little bit about this man over the past few months and I know WHY he does that.  I'm not giving that secret up anytime soon though. 

Hot Shot was working when I had my first two trauma calls, of course.  The first was a little old lady that fell off a tractor and sliced her head open.  The second was a motorcycle/semi accident.  For the record, neither of these traumas were fatalities but he deemed it necessary to give me the nickname "Dispatcher of Death."  And in my own defense, I am not even a dispatcher.  Yet.  That is my second title.  I try to keep reminding him but it goes unnoticed.  So here I am with a nickname and it doesn't even refer to me!  But it stuck.  It wasn't too long after that though, that I had a fatality on my shift.  Fucken people need to stop that shit on my shifts. 

Recently, there was a fatality that wasn't on my shift.  Hot Shot came in the office after I came in that night and told me I was late to work.  Of course I wasn't.  "I was actually here twenty minutes early."  With a shit-eating grin he says, "But the fatality was earlier today."  Nice.  So someone finally listens to me and does that stupid shit while I'm off and I still get shit about it.  Thanks Hot Shot.   I wonder WHY he is still my favorite.  *sigh*

Transports with him are fun.  You never know where the conversations are going to go.  We call his car the "Nut Hut Express."  I am not sure if that's because of the people we have to take or if it's really referring to the driver.  He has his days, trust me.  On one transport, he tried to say how he does all this housework to help his wife out because she's gone a lot.  I pull the bullshit card a lot but have not yet had the opportunity to ask his wife.  My day will come though.  I know what kind of shit he leaves laying around the office, so he can't be THAT tidy at home.  It isn't possible.

Hold on because I'm about to tell you what someone said about him when I asked how they would explain Hot Shot.  "Like having a pet.  He does what he's told and would do anything for you that he could."  In the next breath, it went from him being "like a pet" to "He's like a little brother that you can pet."  What.  The.  Fuck???  Hot Shot really does care about the people around him though.  Whether he wants you to see it or not.  He's too much of a people-person to not care.  There's another likeness I have to him.  And while we're on the subject of how much he cares about people, he has a side to him that isn't always the best.  He cares too much.  He cares what people think.  About him.  About his family.  About his job.  And he has an awful time with criticism, if he thinks it's unwarranted.  He shuts down at the bad stuff.  I don't know if his big ole heart can take it.  And I haven't figured out if that is just how he is or if that's the Mason in him.   I hope that someday, when he's the Sheriff, he has gotten over that part because frankly, if someone doesn't like him, that isn't going to change him.  At least I hope it doesn't. 

He has to know that he will never be able to please everyone so I hope he realizes that in the end, it doesn't matter what people think.  Besides, people being the assholes they are, are usually making poor judgments about you simultaneously as they kiss your ass.  It's ok Hot Shot; life will go on if someone thinks you're an asshole.  After all, I still think you're pretty damn cool and I have called you an asshole many times!  Haha!

"He is very generous and very smart.  Not JUST about his job but about most things he's interested in.  He takes time to really investigate the stuff he likes."  That's a pretty good statement right there.  And pretty honest.  Wish I had come up with it. 

I find myself wondering how things are going to be when he is MY Sheriff.  If he were to take over tomorrow, I would be very concerned but I know that isn’t going to happen so he has time to take that concern and place it elsewhere.  He has some rough edges (just my opinion, remember) when it comes to practices with prisoners.  I know he has been in Law Enforcement a while but I see that he doesn’t really have a “line.”  I know I said that he and I alike, give people second chances, third chances and more if needed BUT there has to be a line.  When that person is sitting in a jail cell, there are certain rights that are “held” until they are let out.  I can’t go into that too much but I think that’s just him trying to be liked. 

I know he will be a fair Sheriff.  Maybe too fair sometimes but fair all the same.  I think he will be a good boss.  Someday it will be a pleasure to call him boss but not today.  And not tomorrow.  I need time to grasp this.  Does not compute and all that good stuff. 

And before I forget, I would like to add one last thing.  He’s a great dad.  He loves his children so much that it shines through his face every time he’s thinking about one of his children or talking about them.  He’s involved and tries to be with them as much as he can be.  That’s a huge plus in my book because being from a Law Enforcement family, my dad missed out on a lot of stuff that us kids did.  Not all of it, but a lot.  The job had to come first.  It was our livelihood.  And we survived.  Just fine.  But it was a different time too.

As I read back, I see a lot about Hot Shot that is similar to my brother Perry when he was in the business, with the exception of Hot Shot having a better haircut.  Very family oriented and very job savvy.  Two things that I find very endearing in a person.  I look forward to working many years with this man and getting to know him better.  Even through his asshole phases.