Thursday July 9, 2009-Dickinson

I had gotten a call from John Blankenship, the Chief Investigator for the Brazoria County District Attorney's office about coming to testify before the Grand Jury this morning on a felony theft case that I had filed. Since I was now
staying in Dickinson, I agreed to come. I got up early (it's amazing that now that I'm retired, 6 o'clock is early) got all dressed up in my policeman's clothes, and went to Angleton. Of course, I stopped off to visit with my coffee drinking friends at the Chevron in Manvel for a few minutes before stopping by the PD to pick up a copy of my report. I saw Mattress Frank, owner of Manvel Mattress, who told me that they had just moved back into their store after Ike had damaged it. He had to move his warehouse area to another location and is happy to be back. I also ran into Mr. Manvel, Johnny Lowe. Johnny owns a large real estate firm in Manvel and has told me repeatedly to come by his place in Colorado when we visit there. He said it is about three miles the other side of Ridgeway on Hwy. 550 and is called Lowelands. He said if the gate is open, they are there and to stop in.

I made my way down to the county courthouse and found the fifth floor Grand Jury room, where I found another old friend Fay Copeland. Faye is retired but spend two or three days a week sitting outside the room and directing folks to where they need to be.

My testimony went well. It was made even easier since the suspect had confessed. The actual Grand Jury actions are secret until they return a true bill or a no bill, but I am confident about this case.

When I finished testifying, I went to John's office to visit with him. He is an RV'er and is traveling to Elkhart Indiana soon to pick up his new trailer, a Rockport. He also helped me out with getting the paperwork for reimbursement for me for coming to court. Those of you that follow this blog will remember that I went all the way from Port Arthur to Angleton for court testimony on another case. I was reimbursed on that case too, but only from my home in Dickinson, not from Port Arthur. The state only pays from your home of record. I wonder what they would have done if I had been like many full-timers and changed my address to South Dakota?

It took longer to find the forms used for reimbursement than anything else, including my testimony. It didn't take long for me to do my part on the form, filling in my address and signing in two or three places, but we got it done.

When I left the courthouse, I stopped off at a Buccee's store for fuel. I had been checking prices all the way over here, and the cheapest prices were at a Texaco in Texas City where they had diesel for $2.30 per gallon. The Buccee's in Angleton had it for $2.29, so I stopped and filled up. I went 883 miles and took on 73.5 gallons for a 12.0 average. Not too bad for a 7 year old truck with 188,000 miles on it!

I got back home around noon and Stella fixed me something to eat. She and Cassie had been piled up in the bed when I left this morning, so I hadn't eaten yet. I sat down in my chair with my computer in my lap and she came in and started working on doctor's stuff, and before you know it, it's 4 o'clock. Well, I may have drifted off to sleep a time or two....I am retired you know and all that grueling testimony this morning wore me out.


We sat around and ended up eating our leftovers from yesterday. That fish I had was just about as good today as it was yesterday. We went for a walk around the park after eating and came back and sat outside until about 8:30. Surprisingly, the skeeters aren't too bad.

Another nice night for us.

So long.