Phew!!

So I managed to get the message out to my dad about the exam results coming back. He is out of town right now, camping with my mom... My mom has absolutely no idea that I am applying for the Mounted Police. When she does find out, she is going to come completely unhinged at me, I just know it.

How do I know it? well,about a year ago, I mentioned rather casually to her that I would like a framed set of prints like my father's, depicting three Sergants of the Mounted Police from the NWMP, RNWMP and RCMP. That launched her into an hour long tirade about how I should never be a cop, people want to kill you and then look what happened to Mike Ferguson, etc. etc., over and over.

Which is why my father and I have been rather cloak and daggar when we talk about my application status. We almost got busted last week when they were here, Dad and I were talking in the bedroom (right next to my gun lockers) and my mother came in, so we just shifted topics midstream. My mother later asked me "so do you and dad have some sort of secret? You stopped talking when I came in the room earlier" No mom, we were talking about my rifles for the big hunting trip next month... good save. Maybe. I'm not so sure that she bought it.

It has made for some careful, if peculiar conversations. when I called my dad yesterday, I told him to talk to me about the procedure to clean the gas jets in the barbecue because it wasn't heating properly. One side of the conversation is barbecues, the other side is my letter from staffing. all summer as they were on their trip when I wanted to talk to him about my application, I told my mother that "the lawnmower is acting up, can I talk to dad, please?"

One day I will have to tell her. With any luck, the conversation will go something like this:

"Bye mom, I'm leaving for Regina now. See you in six months!"

The upside to all of this is I can probably milk her paranoia to my own personal gain. I want a better bulletproof vest than what the force issues. I disagree with the concept of the overt, flack jacket style of vest. I think it looks like you are looking for a fight. I think a concealable vest is a better choice for duty use, that goes under the shirt. I also want a stronger vwest than is issued, too. There is a new vest out on the market the last couple of years called Dragon Skin which will actually stop a lot of armour piercing rifle rounds, and is availiable in a concelable carrier version. I want one. I can milk mom's fears into buying me one of those, I'm sure - she bought my dad a vest for his birthday one year back in the day before the force started issuing vests.

HOT DAMN!!!

Right now I'm having a hell of a time typing this because my hands are shaking so badly - I just opened the letter from RCMP Staffing and Recruiting branch.

My exam results.

yup, the one that decides who goes on and who goes home. The one that also decides how far up the list you are when they pick which applicants are going to get application packages and when.

The scoring is done on a grade point scale, with 5.00 as the maximum. The bare pass mark on this exam is 3.20.

I need a drum roll for this part, so I request of you, dear reader, that you please provide one by drumming on your computer desk.......

are you drumming? I cant hear you, do it louder!!!










My mark was 4.11 out of 5.00

What that means is that I am advancing in the process, so I should anticipate getting my full application package soon and that the PARE test is coming up right away! I also need to get a typing test done (minimum 18 wpm) and I need to get my first aid/CPR renewed right away.

I had also better start getting ready for the Regular Member Selection Interview. have you ever had a job interview that lasts for four hours?? That's something I have to look forward to! At least they give you a preparration guide that walks you through it step by step so you can prepare for it.

My lungs are bleeding!

Holy shit, batman.

I did a practice run on the PARE test on tuesday night. I can still feel it in my lungs two days later. Oh my FREAKING god is that ever hard on the body.

The good news is I got an unofficial time of 4:09, comfortably within the limit of 4:45 for new recruits. That is also good considering I did it with the full Constable weights instead of the lighter recruit weights. I will have to shave 10 seconds off my time in order to graduate from Depot but then, my goal is to be at 3:45 before I even go to Regina.

I did this unofficial run to test myself and my preparations thus far, so I could tune up my training before I have to complete the test for real. The testing staff at the college thought I was nuts for doing it voluntarily. I think they're right. So far my training has been a success: 9 years ago (when I applied last time) I could taste blood every time I exhaled for 4 days afterwards. So far I have not tated blood, but it does feel like there is a lot of fluid in my lungs. I didn't do any cardio this morning at the gym because of that beyond a quick 5 minute warmup (that I normally pace myself out to 6 minutes for when I run) but I will have to run tomorrow morning.

A summary of what I learned from this:
a) run more stairs
b) run more intervals
c) pick up the intensity of my Continuous Pace training

A few technique points that were pointed out to me as well is to take the stairs 2 or 3 at a time, to shave off as much as 20 or 30 seconds from my time, vice hitting every stair going up and down. I also need to be more careful during the push/pull stage to avoid losing any time to penalties.

In other news: It has now been 3 1/2 weeks since I wrote the exam. Still no results. Why can't the results come any faster???