Jack’s Police History
Brief History
‘Jack’s Newswatch’ has been in operation since 2006 and was created as a way to keep myself busy in retirement after a long career in policing (42 years). It has turned out to be a real challenge as I have moved through several servers for one reason or another, the most recent ‘disaster’ involving my host at A2 Hosting which went down a week and a half ago and is still having problems as I write. I lost several years worth of work in that debacle but what has been built once can be built again.
Suffice to say my patience is limited and enforced idleness is not my strong suit and so I’ve moved once again to Blue Hosting which appears to be working properly.
Also mentionable is the fact that this website has received millions of hits over the years, so much so that I rarely bother to look at my stats anymore. I cease to be amazed.
My main purpose is to make available to others news and columns that interest me. Initially my thinking was “If I’m reading this stuff, maybe someone else might want to also”. And so it goes. I run no ads on this site because there are so many of them on the net I use an ad blocker to shut them down (they steal bandwidth and they really piss me off).
This site is strictly for information purposes and everything visitors see is entirely self taught. Just FYI.
Site Changes
This new site location at time of writing (May 7th, 2019) is barely a week old and as such is still a work in progress and will be for sometime. The latest change affecting subscribers came today when I went and found a free plugin that permits those who are logged in to insert their own gravatar. Please note that it should be sized to 250×250 pixels and saved in ‘png’ format before uploading. This is to permit it to resize properly on whatever medium the viewer is using.
Hospitalization
In early September 2022 this site went silent as I was suddenly admitted to Brampton hospital after I passed out at home. The cause was discovered to be an abdominal aneurism. Later I was moved to Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto where 12 hours of surgery corrected the problem. I am still recovering and at present a guest at the Sunnybrook Veteran’s facility. It is my hope that I will be able to return home within the next couple of months. We’ll see.
October 6th, 2023
I returned home about 3 weeks ago and while still recovering from a year I would rather forget (2022) I’m able to look after myself with a help from my family and some wonderful friends. My wife Susan also passed away on August 18th, 2022 from cancer after a wonderful marriage that lasted some 35 years. At the moment walking normally is my biggest problem but I’m working on it and hoping to get my DL back (suspended for medical reasons) at the end of this month when I visit my family doctor. We’ll see about that. Wish me luck.
November 29th, 2023
Here’s ‘moi’ and the love of my life back a couple of decades ago:
And here’s another (our wedding picture). I’d never seen Sue happier than that day and so was I.
35 years married and never a harsh word. Vince Gill and his wife say it best. The lady is in a better place now. A victim of cancer and I miss her everyday but I thank God for the knowing of her all that time.
And here’s the rest of my family that I love so dearly.
The elderly lady sitting next to Suzanna (my daughter) is Marie Scott, Anita’s (also my daughter) mother-in-law, who is sitting next to Sue. Missing in the photo is Kevin, Anita’s husband.
God bless them all!
And for Susan, my much loved wife now departed, something special:
