Okay, so after my post about the presidential inauguration, there was a startling increase of traffic on my blog. I drilled down in my site metre and noted that most of them came from a site called the Texas Predator Posse...Uh oh, that can't be good. Their logo is a deputy's badge with the view through a scope in the centre.

I followed the link back and was kind of alarmed to see my blog url embedded in a forum thread about how bad it's going to be now that Obama's president. The members are from Texas, Bush supporters, conservatives, members of the NRA and definitely not happy about the situation in Washington.

At first I took it to be a bunch of aging veterans pining for the old days when I realized that the majority are about the same age as me. I noted with interest that one link originated in Washington on the US Department of Justice server. These guys are on someone's watch list. Either way, the whole thing was a little disconcerting. A couple tried to leave comments on my blog but either couldn't figure it out or, more likely, were afraid of identifying themselves. Kind of a moot point since I have their site but they didn't know that until now.

Anyway, once I realized I wasn't going to become a target (literally, given the photos of and references to dead animals and guns - one signature reads, "There is room for all of God's creatures, right next to the mashed potatoes" haha ) - anyway, I forgot about them.
Until last night....dun dun dunnnn... just kidding

You see, I volunteered to cook chili for the ski trip this weekend. I googled "chili recipes" at work which of course pulled up 4 billion - all claiming to be the best and the original. I couldn't decide on one so went home to check out a couple of cookbooks. I was leafing through the current LCBO magazine and found this "Deep-in-the-Heart-of-Texas Chili" recipe. It looked pretty tasty and, since Texas has been on mind this week, I decided to make it as a tribute to the good ol' boys of the Texas Predator Posse. We'll never see eye to eye on George Dubya but I think we can agree there are a lot of other great things that come out of Texas.

Haha, Max Larose is such a clown! No, really. He's a clown called Pédalo - very funny and talented. Here he is with Nanane (Andréanne Thiboutot). He also performs in another troupe called Les 3 Garcons. He's the only paddler I know who's found a job he loves where he can still wear spandex every day and is the perfect application of all that training.

Obama keepin' it real

The presidential inauguration ceremony did not disappoint. Too often the president-elect is amazing during the campaign only to fall into old and tired political rhetoric on the day - trying to create that Hollywood snapshot of what Americans seem to think is appropriate for the world stage. There's no question that this day will be immortalized in that way - not by design but because it was so genuine and so significant.

Barack Obama was able to move the people simply by stating the way things are. Granted, he's an incredible orator but it was the words and the conviction behind them that determined the power of this discourse. He attested to the reality of the american economy, the peoples' accountability for environmental, martial and political issues. Without bitterness, he addressed the struggle of the people to achieve equality, included references to the founding fathers, to the immigrant population and even to their enemies, without that worn-out, american bluster. I laughed at this little bit of samurai swagger, "We are strong and we will defeat you", words that are exceedingly appropriate for this generation.

One of my favourite parts of the ceremony (there were many) was the benediction given by the Reverend Joseph Lowery. He spoke to the world but asked that Americans cling to the spirit of fellowship embodied at the inauguration. In essence, he petitioned the american people to walk the walk now that they had talked the talk. He finished with words that I haven't heard since the '60s and '70s but were common at the time, “...work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man and when white will do what's right” .

How wonderful for the people of the United States that they can hold their heads up again and be proud of themselves and the man that represents them in the community of nations.

"With a little help from my friends"

For the past couple of months I've been pretty miserable. Oh really, you knew? I wasn't hiding it well in my Little Miss Sunshine posts? Yeah, sorry. Usually I keep my more personal diary-type entries hidden but I've decided to track noticible trends around certain times of the year or in particular situations where my attitude goes in the toilet.

Well, last week after my Starbucks post, I got an email from a friend, an incredibly intelligent and insightful friend - wise beyond his years, who offered some suggestions for pulling myself out of the pit in which I'd found myself. He suggested as a starting point, listening to the Beatles, which was coincidental since I've been listening to them again recently.
Anyway, the one song he commented on was "A Day in the Life".
He wrote, "Not necessarily the lyrics, but the title. I find it puts things in perspective. Things happen. Sometimes they're good, great, Grand. Other times, well... not so much. But either way, it's a day in the life and it's better than not having it at all. If it's a bad day, it reminds you that it's only a day, it's an experience, though maybe not a good one. Like the theory goes, how do you know what happiness is without sadness? And if it's a good day, well, it's a reminder that not every day is like that, so enjoy it. Either way, it's life.... and while not always fun and super, it's something to experience."

Aside from the sheer, reassuring 'human-ness" of his email (I'm not going to lie, I cried a little bit), it reminded me that: I've developed a lot of good coping skills over the years. I can find any of my personal "pick-yourself-up & pull-yourself-together" songs on iTunes or youtube in an instant (that'll be tomorrow's post), I have a wealth of photo reminders of good times and wonderful friends. And above all, I have friends who care enough and are empathetic enough to act on impulse with a simple email or phone call.

Literally, in a moment I turned the corner.

That day, I put in for 3 weeks holidays in March and have spent the past week checking out dream travel destinations like I'm in the tourist candy store - Asia, Africa, South America and the US (California and Hawaii - warm weather only). I don't know if I'll actually end up in any of those places but what the hell, it's only money right?

Today I called the ORC and inquired about tennis lessons (I've never played). They said can you come tonight? I said sure! $105 and they give you a free racquet and 7 lessons. I had so much fun on my first night. I'm meeting new people from my neighbourhood, learning a new skill and you know what? I'm pretty good!

Honestly, I'm shaking my head because I have no idea how I let myself get so wrapped up in grief and self-pity. Who was that person?

So, since I can't come up with a way to close this, I'll leave you with a quote attributed to Albert Einstein (among others) that sums things up...

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”

A U.S. Airways passenger jet had to ditch into the Hudson on Thursday, January 15. Intial reports say the pilot radioed to say he lost 2 engines when birds were sucked into them.
Here's the footage, released by the US Coast Guard today. The action starts around the 2:00 minute mark - you'll see a small white object enter the frame from the left. Reaction time for the rescue was very fast and the pilot is being commended for his heroics.

Sometimes you just have one of those days. You know, where it feels like you're stuck under a dark cloud? Eventually it'll go away but right now it's completely obliterating any bright spots and you lose all perspective. I've kind of felt this way for a couple of months. The concern over my parents' steady decline, constant, EXPEN$IVE car problems, issues at work (somebody didn't enter our vacation time properly for last year so even though our managers authorized all vacation requests, they're now saying we took extra days off and have to take it out of this years vacation. bah.), I'm sick, the weather sucks, the drivers are worse, I can't get out of the city but even if I could, I don't have anyone to go with....erm, okay this is pathetic. I'll add 'bad attitude' to that list....

Anyway, it all kind of piled up and hit me today. And I could boil my life down to 4 words - sleep, eat, work, gym. I was hoping a good workout would boost me up. I ran...boring...rode the bike....yawn...glided nowhere on the eliptical...sooooo tedious....

After I hit the sauna and shower, I went outside where it was minus 20 and found the roads (and my car) snow-covered. Defeated, I walked over to Starbucks. I thought a berry chai might give me a lift before I headed home to my Eleanor Rigby life. I'm ordering my drink, pulling out my wallet and running the speech in my head that says I'm ridiculous for spending $3.40 on a beverage just because it says Starbuck's on the logo when the girl behind the counter says, "Oh, you can put your wallet away. Someone came in earlier and covered all the drinks for tonight!"

I was like "What?"

She said, "That's right. free".

I said, "You mean like a customer came in and said, "Good evening barristas, bevvies on me and money's no object!"??
She said, "Yeah, that's pretty much how it happened."

Wow. Nameless, faceless Starbuck's person, you made my day!

I've been ridiculously sick this past week. Since I was useless for anything else, I decided to do some clearing out and go through the crawlspace under the stairs. It's full of boxes that I put there 9 years ago when I moved to Port Credit. I had no idea what was in them but figured since I haven't missed anything since the move, they're probably full of junk.


Instead, I found a box of CDs I thought were long gone, and then - PHOTO GOLD! An entire box of photographs I forgot even existed. Pictures of my son's first trip off the continent at 15, a 3-month exchange program to France, getting his drivers licence, paddling pics from '96-'99 and a nice surprise, a few pictures of my friend Susi's dogs.

That may not sound too important but about 9 years ago Susi turned the corner on her way home from work and was horrified to see her street full of firetrucks and firefighters trying to put out the blaze that was her house. Her children were grown and away from home but firefighters kept her at the end of the driveway, helpless and crying, as her house burned to the ground with her adored pets - 3 dogs and a cat - inside. The fire was too big and too hot, there was nothing they could do to save them.

When people say they've lost everything in a fire (aside from living creatures), I always think of the big things - the roof over their heads, furniture, appliances, that kind of stuff. But a huge loss is the memories contained in photos. I can't even imagine. My mom used to tell me that if our house caught fire, after her children (thanks mom!) she would try to save her photographs. Anyway, I knew Susi had been able to get a single photo of one dog from the breeder but that was it. I was so glad to be able to find something to replace them.

Long time. Christmas seems about a year ago but I want to get some stuff down. I'm really sick at the moment though so that may colour the way it comes out - sort of ho-hum....
I had a great Christmas season - lots of parties, lots of people to see. Louise, Jonathon and Mia were home from Hong Kong and we partied it up at her mom's as usual.

I attended a memorial for John Boy Ryan where I saw dozens of old friends from 15-20 years ago. Sounds weird I know but it was one of those sad-happy occasions.

I had our C-4 + a few over on the 23rd - Chrissy & Jeff, Jess, Larry, Chanda, Marisha and Carrie came by for some Thai food and a relaxed night. Marisha had to head to her brother's in Montreal so missed Chrissy & Jeff.
Ryan came over on Christmas Eve. After he shovelled the driveway, we had leftover thai and watched back-to-back movies.

Christmas day was the nursing home run. My sister picked up my mom and brought her up to my dad's (they're in separate homes by circumstance, not design) and after a visit, Laurel headed home to make sure Christmas dinner was on track. Ryan and I took mom back to her nursing home - my father is aware but cannot get out of bed whereas my mother is completely mobile but has Parkinsons. She has no idea who or where she is or any recognition of us or, quite frankly, of reality. However, with all that, this is the first year we weren't all together for Christmas dinner. It was definitely less exhausting but it's one of the moments. You know?

New Years Eve, I went to Tammy and Greg's for an early new year celebration with the Seckos and kids, Charlotte and Kyle, Blake & Jackie with Sydney, Rich & Steph Phelan with Brady and 1 week-old Griffin and Julie Secko. We rang in 2009 with the kids at 8:00pm and then played Wii until about 11:30. Marisha called to say she was at the Harp with a few people if I wanted to join them but I felt like I'd had a new years and wasn't feeling the pub vibe at the moment. Went home and flipped between Nathan Philips Square and Time Square until midnight.

I was supposed to go to Andrea's on friday night but came down with a really bad cold, high fever. I cancelled and went to bed instead.
Even though I had this stupid cold, I wanted to carry on as planned. The weekend after New Years was starting to shape up as a fun one: a fashion photo shoot for Danielle with Rachel E as a model at the lighthouse and a jewellry class in Bloor West Village for Tammy's birthday, then snowshoeing on Sunday. It all came to a crashing halt when I got a call that my dad was rushed to hospital.
He was at Sunnybrook and when I arrived he was still out in the hall with paramedics. He was there for about 2 hours. The medics who brought him in had to leave - they're on the ETF squad and got a call - so another couple of paramedics inherited him, staying with us until he was admitted.
The hospital was on overflow and he was shifted from one hall to another until a nurse took a look at him and said he was too sick and had to be put in ICU.
Thank goodness. He was freezing cold but sweating and having difficulty breathing. His caregiver said he hadn't eaten for a couple of days. Hours later, the doctor came to me and said his circulation system had already shutdown and his kidneys were not functioning. He said he didn't expect him to last more than a few hours and I should call the rest of the family. My sister was already in the air, on her way home from a vacation in Whistler so I called my brother in Winnipeg and asked if he could come home. He called me later and said he couldn't get a flight until morning. The end of christmas holidays and EVERYONE on the continent was flying somewhere.
I called Ryan and asked him to come back to the hospital - he'd just left 45 minutes before. We stayed in dad's room overnight, sleeping on chairs. Not really sleeping though. It was pretty awful because every 20 minutes or so my dad would stop breathing and clutch his arms to his chest. Each time we jumped up to grab his hands thinking it was his last moment. At no point did he seem aware of us, the few times he opened his eyes they were unfocused and looking past us.
By the morning not much had changed but his fever was gone. His skin was still freezing to the touch though and his pupils were pinpoints. My sister and brother arrived about the same time - shortly after noon - I stayed until the doctor came and looked at him, said no change. I tapped out. He was stable and I'd been at the hospital for 30 hours. I was exhausted. Of course there was a parking ticket on my car in the emergency lot when I came out.
Anyway, they kept him in the ICU until Tuesday when they moved him to a regular room. Today a speech therapist determined that he's able to swallow so he'll be allowed to have some food. He's actually aware now and recognizes us. I planned to go back to work today but am now so sick that I sent an email around 1 am to let them know I wouldn't be in.
My car's in the garage and I'm driving the Honda Fit dad bought for the caregiver to drun errands when he was still living at home. Kind of good to have this floater vehicle for times like this.
Once I know my dad's stable again I'm going on a long holiday.

I have been seriously lazy these past few days. Not by choice but that's how it works out sometimes. I woke up in a pretty hyper mood on boxing day morning. It was raining. I really wanted to go x-country skiing, snowshowing or anything outside but within a couple of hours I was back in bed with the flu. I guess it's a good thing I didn't just jump in the car to head up north. That would have been a pretty miserable couple of hours once the, uh, ailment kicked in. I slept for the entire day, woke up around 7 pm, watched a movie and then went back to bed for another solid 8 hours. I can't remember what the movie was, I was so out of it. Oh yeah, Run, Fat Boy, Run. Pretty funny.

Yesterday morning was warm and rainy, as promised. I was at the gym by 8 am and at Sherway gardens by 10 am.

I've been thinking about getting a Macbook so headed for the Apple Store. Of course, when I say "headed for", it's implied that it was via French Connection, Josef,
Lululemon, Tristan, Lacoste and Banana Republic. I was in a mood to shop. No purchases though. I'd like to say it's because I'm a smart shopper but reality is that I'm about 20 pounds overweight right now and, unfortunately, I don't carry it in a way that's going to get me my own reality show. I wasn't about to spend money on clothes because as anyone knows, the minute you buy the NEXT SIZE UP, you are admitting that is your actual size and it's game over.

Anyway, I finally got to my intended destination. I decided to think about the Macbook a little longer but ended up with a Bose sound dock for home, an iPhone/iPod radio adaptor for my car stereo and Nike sport headphones for the gym. The car adaptor doesn't work very well - imagine an am radio when you're going through a tunnel - so I'm returning it next week.

OHMYGOD! It's unbelievably windy right now. I checked the weathernetwork but didn't really need it to tell me we're experiencing gusts up to 76km/h. The top floor of the house is actually shaking with the bigger gusts. But I can see some blue sky out there and I am desperate to get out of this house. The lake must be CRAZY right now. I'm going down to take a look.

Later!

Ouch. Eve was boarding on the weekend and broke her arm. Dmitri posted some pics up on fb so I emailed her to find out what happened. She broke her radius just below the epicondyle and the bone slid on top of the epicondyle. She says it's been a really painful experience. Urgh. Just the description makes me shudder.

Unbelievable.
On my way home tonight, I stopped at Battaglia's in Lorne Park to pick up something for dinner. I was checking out behind an obviously affluent, 60-ish couple. She had on a $1500 ski jacket ( I know because I've been shopping around) that has never seen snow and he was wearing a cashmere overcoat. While they waited for the checkout girl to bag their groceries, the woman was surreptitiously scooping up stacks of brown paper bags (lunchbag size) that they have at the checkout, folding them and stuffing them into the grocery bags that were already packed. While the checkout girl was busy filling the last of the bags, she walked over to the next aisle which was closed, did a kind of swoop and turn and scooped up another stack, hiding it at her side and stuffing it into the final bag. Seriously, she thought nobody could see her, like she was wearing the 'cloak of invisibility" or something! The whole time she kept an inane conversation going with her husband as a distraction (I guess). Sickness!

When they left, the checkout girl and I looked at each other and shook our heads. I said, "I guess they need lunch bags". She said, "Yeah, weirdest thing I've seen today." Really, I thought it was decent of her to pretend she didn't see anything.

When I went out to my car, I saw the couple loading up the last of their groceries in their 2008 Range Rover. I was behind them going down Lorne Park Rd and watched them drive into Lorne Park Estates. You know, the pretend gated community running south of Lakeshore at Lorne Park Road?

Okay, I know, brown paper bags, no big deal but seriously - they couldn't throw down $3.00 for the lunch bags the grocery store sells? What do you think? She's got to be lifting bigger things when she's out at the mall...

I think we stay connected to friends in more ways than we realize.

All day I've been thinking about calling an old friend, Patty. We haven't seen each other in a long time but were good friends through the 80s and 90s. She was one of my bridesmaids and not one of those, you know, that you pick just because you're friends at the time of your wedding and then don't see a year later. We just gradually lost touch - marriage, geography, children, Life! We connected on facebook this past spring and sent emails back and forth, both of us saying let's find time to get together.

Today, out of the blue she kept popping into my thoughts so I decided to call and see if she had free time over the holidays. I didn't call right away - partly procrastination and partly shyness brought on by the years between - I told myself, "she's probably going away to spend christmas with her brothers or sister", "I'll find out what days I'm available and then call her"...you know how it goes.

Anyway, tonight I got a message from Patty that her father, John Ryan - known as John Boy to everyone including his children - passed away last night. He was a pretty dynamic guy. He and his much younger wife Kay had six children. Wow, I just realized that he must have been close to 90 this year but still living on his own and travelling to the cottage on summer weekends. His birthday parties were epic and everyone who grew up in their neighbourhood was in awe of him. I didn't start hanging out with those guys until my mid-20s so didn't get to know him well. I was close to several of his kids though and they're all pretty fantastic. For anyone who knew John, this is the end of an era.

So, it seems, I'll be getting together with a lot of old friends over Christmas. Not the circumstances I would wish for but it will certainly be a celebration. John Boy wouldn't have it any other way!

SNL has been pretty boring since the election so I stopped watching again. Last, night I got home shortly after midnight. I can never go right to bed after a night out so I tuned into SNL - Bonus! Hugh Laurie was host.

Side note: I just figured out that Hugh Laurie really reminds me of Dick Van Dyke. Or I should say DVD's portrayal of anyone British.

Anyway, the sketches on SNL were disappointing at best, especially considering the comic genius they had hosting the show (they should have let Laurie write) but Kanye West's performance was outstanding.
I bought Kanye's first cd - really liked it - but lost interest over the years because I wasn't hearing anything outstanding or the only time I saw media items about him, he was portrayed as a giant, ego-maniacal jackass, I'm not sure.

Anyway, last night's performance, in spite of technical difficulties like no Auto-Tune at the beginning, made me a huge fan again. Love the song, love the screen, love the graphics, THE JACKET he's wearing, oh my god, LVZIT! All I can find out is that it's from Kanye's own line, Past Tell (or Pastelle depending on which site you read), possibly created by Kim Jones. I think it's actually grey wool but it's difficult to tell because the jacket changes colour with the lighting. Anyway, sorry if this link doesn't work - I have to keep changing them as they disappear due to copyright infringement




Keep in mind the colours weren't so muddy on tv - everything's washed out on uploaded stuff. And the visuals were most likely set up for the studio audience so you don't always get the full effect of him dancing in front of the screen (e.g. head cut off). It looks way better when the cameera's shooting from low down. Can you imagine what this looked like live?

I know, my blog has been stagnant lately. It's because I've had too much to write about and not enough time to make it worthwhile. I'll catch things up asap, I promise, especially now that things are calming down at work. In the meantime, please check out the Aniboom student animation contest entries. They are pretty impressive.

Our Wonderful Nature - very funny





and The Clocktower...

Today's word is 'Prorogation'

Brought to you by the letters GG

Amateur Hour in Canada
Did you watch the Prime Minister & opposition's address to the nation last night? I laughed when Stéphane Dion's broadcast started. High school A/V club? Youtube video? Speakers Corner?? Was there actually a book called 'Hot Air' visible behind his shoulder? All this may seem trivial in light of what's happening in the country but it's kind of, if we weren't laughing we'd be crying.
So, is Stéphane Dion our Sarah Palin? I think he might be.
Stephen Harper's bradcast wasn't much better but at least he was in focus. It looked like they had set up the shot in front of a folding closet door. There was a weird camera angle that made him look down at the camera the entire time. He looked like Principal Skinner giving Bart a talking-to in his office. On the radio this morning, they played a clip of Harper and then one of Joel Matlin, of the Alarm Force commercials. Identical!
Just when the U.S. seems to be getting their act together, Canada is becoming a circus. Perfect.
Later that night, when I was condemning an american show's portrayal of a couple of Canadians as gormless, Hawaiian shirt wearing, "eh" spewing hicks, I realized that they just might be right.

ps I did notice the typo "bradcast" but decided to leave it. I think it should be an industry term for any country-clubbing, Lacoste-wearing, martini-drinking talking head. Seriously, if Stephen Harper isn't a "Brad", I don't know who is.

Love Usher. I stayed up so I could watch him perform on some show.
Oh yeah, and there were a bunch of girls wearing wings, trees, lingerie and stuff. Okay, I'm kidding. Loved the whole show - it was so fun!

I have to say, I no longer want Heather Locklear's publicisit when I become a celebrity. Whoever is handling Jason Lewis' career is on the ball. He was front and centre in most of the shots in the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion show. Don't remember who he is?

Well tonight he looked like this...

but mentioning his alter-ego, Smith Jerrod, gives me an excuse to post this...

Do you remember him now?

Whoa, weird. I was flipping through the channels tonight and something caught my eye on channel 21 (I later found out it's ShopTV Canada), a name I recognized...
It was Catherine Garceau giving a testimonial for this product . It was so random. For a few years after the 2000 Olympics, I used to run into her at the PC Starbucks. She wasn't up to much and was yo-yoing between 10-20 extra pounds but now she looks fantastic. Back to the way she looked when Tommy was dating her and she used to come to our spin sessions at Gears. Hey, wasn't she double-jointed or something too?
Double whoa, I just did a quick google and she really has her shiat together. Click on her name for her website. Aside from being a performer in some exotic underwater show at a resort somewhere, she's doing a bunch of stuff and even found time to write her memoir “Fish Out of Water, an Olympian’s Journey back to Amazing Grace” which is set to be published next year. Very nice, I wish her the best.

Even though I wasn't particularly tired this morning, I stayed in bed until 11am. I have the most comfortable, down-filled bed in the WORLD and no early morning plans sooo ...why would I get up? Anyway...oh did I mention that I'm cat-sitting? Yes. This is Bijou. If you aren't out of bed by 8am, she has something to say about it. She has a quiet meow and isn't aggressively obnoxious, so that's nice but every 20 minutes or so, she'll jump on the bed and meow, walk around a bit, stare into your eyes about 1 inch from your face and then charge down the stairs.

Around 11, the phone rang twice and then stopped. It said "Jackie". This happened a couple of weeks ago - Sydney had gotten hold of the phone and dialed the first contact on the list. I thought it was the same today until I got a text saying Jackie was at Starbuck's in PC. I met her and Sydney there (Blake was in a meeting at Helen's). Liz & Chris Lightbound joined us and we also ran into Clare and Monique who had just finished db practice at MCC.
When I got home, I checked email and noticed my son's FB status said something about "an interesting experience on the way to renting a video last night". I thought it was odd he didn't mention anything when he came over but figured it was just something related to his group of friends. He called me later and filled me in....
After he left my house last night, he decided to return the Wanted video we watched and get something else. He went to his favourite neighbourhood video store. As he was about to go in, a young guy carrying a giant knapsack busted out of the store, pushed past him and ran across the parking lot. Ryan knows everyone working there and the clerk, an 18 year old girl, met him at the door saying, "That guy just stole all of our video games. What should I do?" Ryan told her to call 911 and he'd call her in a few minutes. Ryan saw the kid travelling along Major Mac so, going along behind the neighbourhood plazas and sidestreets, Ryan tracked him for a few kilometres until he stopped to wait at a bus stop. Ryan called the police on his cell and told them exactly where they could pick him up. He continued along a sidestreet, coming out past the bus stop, on the opposite side from the store. The kid never even noticed him. As Ryan was walking past the bus stop, three cruisers and an unmarked car came flying up for the takedown. He said the kid, who turned out to be 15, put up a pretty awesome fight considering what the crime was, his size and how many cops were there. He had a couple thousand dollars of merchandise in the knapsack so the store employees were pretty grateful that it was recovered. I think the cops reacted as quickly as they did because one of the stores in this video chain was robbed at gunpoint a couple of weeks ago. I'm just grateful Ryan didn't tackle this kid on his own.