Page 490 - NIXBOOK

Alright, I’ll end this now with the email that I sent to all of the city of Poulsbo employees, on my last day of work:

Aloha everybody!

Way back in 1993 I subjected myself to an extensive applicant testing process to start my career as a police officer here, and I
somehow finished with a ranking of #1 over 120 other hopeful candidates. Chief Jeff Doran hired me, and I graduated from the
Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s Basic Law Enforcement Academy, in class 403. (They’re now up to
the 800’s there!) In the past 27 years, I’ve seen a lot of changes in Poulsbo, and in policing in general.

In the history of the Poulsbo Police Department, my tenure is a bit above average; only a very few officers here have had, or
currently have, longevity like mine. Some folks had suggested that I stay awhile even longer to end my career on nice even
number, like “30.” Uh.. No. Just…no. If I can count my prior military service then I’m already well over 30 years in uniform.
And since I started my career as a servant of the law when I was only 25 years old, my oath to protect and defend the
Washington State Constitution as a Poulsbo Police Officer has been in effect now for literally more than half of my life; also a
rather distinguishing rare achievement.

I feel like I’ve made a good enough contribution to society and now I’d like to get myself out of the danger zone before my
good luck runs out. I figure the odds only get worse that with each passing year something bad could, would, or will happen to
me. Also the cumulative effects of the job demands have taken a toll: I’ve seen somewhere between enough and too many
disturbing crime scenes, bloody car accidents, rotting dead people, selfish criminals, traumatized victims, unsatisfactory plea
deals and unprosecuted cases, and I’ve definitely had more than enough experiences that were ugly, shocking, unpleasant,
depressing, and soul-sucking.

I know that despite all that I’ve been exposed to and endured – or more likely because of it all - I have gained enough insight,
perspective and wisdom to develop a personal deep appreciation of life, and living, and the pursuit of happiness. I’ve known
too many cops who stayed in this line of work for too long. Some of them even died shortly after leaving, with not nearly
enough years to enjoy their well-deserved retirement. There should be – and there will be for me - much more to life than
working at a highly stressful and dangerous job.

I've also seen an alarmingly high number of my peers who got injured, or physically worn down, or mentally damaged from
this line of work. Many of them have had experiences that will haunt them for their rest of their lives. And I've seen too many
good cops just self-destruct, in a wide variety of unfortunate ways and means. So like I said, I don’t want to push my luck
anymore; I’m out. I’ll be eternally grateful and proud that I was able to honorably finish my career on a date of my own
choosing, planned well in advance; also a pretty rare event for PPD officers. In my case, made possible by just a bit of skill and
a lot of luck.

To my brother and sister officers and other city of Poulsbo employees, I have enjoyed working for and with just about all of
you and some of you I’ll miss considerably, and probably think about too much. I want to thank you all for the opportunities,
challenges, experiences, growth, support and friendships over the years. To my long-suffering coworkers especially who have
had to put up with me and my never-ending shenanigans and wide variety of poor decisions, I readily acknowledge and
recognize that you all have had to endure much more from me than you deserve, and I thank you for your saintly high levels of
patience, tolerance, and forgiveness.

My police badge is now going into a small display shadow box, and all of the PPD patrol officers ranking below me now get to
deservedly each move up one spot on the seniority scale.

I’m also quite pleased to report that yes, it certainly does feel like a great weight has been lifted off of me - there was just a
ridiculously long list of unpleasant things that I had to worry about and deal with.

As for my future plans for my next chapter in life: Although the great Pacific Northwest is a swell place to live, Susan and I
have had just enough of the fall and winter months that seem to have way too many days that are short, dark, gray, cloudy,
sunless, gloomy, dreary, foggy, drizzly, wet, and cold. So we’re selling our house and moving to Hawaii.

We’ve embraced the philosophy of simplification and minimalization enough to renounce excessive materialism and
consumerism and be quite satisfied with much less, which is how we plan to happily and successfully live in our small condo
in Maalaea, Maui, which is in our name already and waiting for us. Our electric car and two motorcycles will take a boat and
meet us there soon, and we have our one-way plane tickets also taken care of. First Class, because reasons. We’re also taking
along our tubby tabby Pushy Cat and the old Skittish Shedder.