Nonsense

I had another ride along today. It went well. Not very busy but something is better than nothing. I always find my ride alongs a lesson in humility. I usually end up dealing w/the down-trodden and cast aways of society. Whether by fault or fate, life dealt these folks a shitty hand. Some make the best of it, others wallow in their misery. Either way, I’m reminded of how lucky I am and how far we need to go as a society before we can even begin to throw around terms like “civilized”. It is unthinkable that we allow folks to sink to such lows.

While responding to a victim of an assualt, we happen to see a man walking the streets sort of erratically. The most striking trait is the odd color of his hands. By odd, they were completely purple. Not a good sign regardless of the reason. It becomes apparent said person isn’t dealing w/a full deck as we watch him perform a sort of hopscotch of hopping back and forth across the street. PD was onscene and mentioned he’d been 5150’d (psych eval’d) previously on several occasions. Uh, yeah! Here we have a man that w/medication and just a modicum of daily intervention could lead a normal even productive life. Thanks to a variety of issues, including our shitty no-good piece-of-shit president’s policy of robbing this country of any social programs, this poor soul is left homeless and forgotten. He wanders the streets on a daily basis in a cloud of chemical dysfuntion. And true to description, after dealing w/our current patient, we can’t find him. Lost once again in the daily shuffle of life. He is but one of many such people in this city. And not just SF, you could pick any large city in the US and encounter a similar problem.

Oh, and our assault victim? A victim true enough. But, as soon as PD left, he hopped out of the ambulance and was on his way. He was what we call a “repeat offender”. Someone who works the ins and outs of the system just so he can get a ‘free ride’. But how free is it when your life is at the whim of social services, housed in squalor, and totally dependent on the kindness of others?

At day’s end I find my faith in my current career choice renewed. I may not be able to save them all but I know I can make a difference. Even if that “difference” is a compassionate face in the chain of faces one must endure when faced w/a life on the streets.

What Color Is My Skin?

I have so much to write about I’m busting at the seams. I know I’m bound to forget some of it. Oh well, such is life I guess.

I was a good boy and went to the gym today. Nice back/bicep workout. There is a new guy working out the Gold’s on Brannan. Obviously straight but a total hottie. I drop an egg every time I see him basically. Today he said hi to me and I almost yelped. I’m not so silly as to read anything into it. He often sees me and was just being friendly. Moving on…

I was reading brett cajun today and was dismayed by his article on the problems facing New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. I say dismayed as exactly what I thought would happen did. Or is happening. (I’m not sure of the grammar here but you get the point.)

We think we are so civilized as a society and yet we aren’t even close. You only need to look at a disaster like Katrina to realize that. We quickly revert back to “fend for ourselves” mentality and screw everyone else. Even worse, the government that we elect to protect and serve, failed it’s citizens in the most fundamental way. The ball was dropped at the local level which created a cascading failure all the way to the top. A failure compounded by our lack of support in the aftermath. I think I’ve beat that point to death so I’ll get back on focus.

Half of my family is from Cajunville so I am no stranger to New Orleans or it’s class issues. New Orleans has always had issues w/racism and poverty. A tiny percentage of the city lives in wealth and prosperity. A tiny percentage of “white folks” mind you. There is a decent size “middle-class community but it is completely overshadowed by the large percentage of people living at or below poverty level. Most of which are black. After Katrina, the government tried a ‘quick fix’ to the problem by throwing money at it and hoping “they’ll take what they can get” and go somewhere else. Well friends, that is not the answer as is becoming obviously clear. The crime rate in New Orleans has sky-rocketed. As often happens, people overlook the subtleties for the more obvious differences. By this I mean race. Considering over half of the population is black and most of those live in the afore mentioned poor conditions, it isn’t a big leap in logic to figure you will have a higher percentage of blacks committing crimes.

When every crime against you is perpetrated by someone who is black, it becomes easy to make assumptions about race. I’m fortunate enough to be far enough removed now to see the issue more clearly. If I still lived in New Orleans, I might think the same thing. But, if we are to truly become civilized then we must move beyond ‘easy answers’ and work on the bigger problems. Hoping “they” will go away hasn’t worked before and won’t work now.

Sadly, I don’t think that will happen in New Orleans but one can still hope right? (And some might think this a pot-shot at Brett. It isn’t. He took some heat for his post and kudos to him for foregoing politeness for honesty. I adore Brett. I just felt the need to sound off my own opinion w/o monopolizing his blog.)

Oh, and one more thing… Saying you “are not a racist” only makes you look like an ass. Everyone is a racist to one degree or another. It is how you act on it that defines you.

You Wanna Stick That Where?

Well, since so many of you actually do read on weekends, I thought you’d get a kick out of this. The new roomie is all moved in. I sorta neglected to mention he has done porn in the past. I’ve known him so long I think I tend to subconsciously tune that part of his life out. *g* He is like a ‘sista’ to me so the thought of him naked isn’t exactly appealing. I’m white trash but lesbian sex is just revolting. LOLOL (j/k of course) For the record, he does have a rather manly sexy look. I wouldn’t touch him to scratch him.
🙂

On the way to do laundry today, I was cornered by one of my neighbors. A neighbor who normally maintains an aloofness during our brief interactions. Our conversation went something like this…

Neighbor: Hi Moby, How you doing?
Me: I’m doing fine

Neighbor: I noticed your new roommate moved in last night. Can I ask you something?
Me: Yeah, he is in, fire away.

(Insert look of confusion on how to phrase his next words)
Neighbor: Does your roommate do porn?
Me: Uh, yeah he has in the past, why?

Neighbor: OMG! Is he *** *****?
Me: Yeah, I think that’s right.

(very excited now)
Neighbor: Can you introduce us? I’m his biggest fan. I would be in your debt if you could arrange it.
Me: Uh…well, sure. Can I finish my laundry first?

(frown of disappointment)
Neighbor: Oh, of course. Here is my home # and my cell. Call me when you are done.
Me: Ok, well good to see you.

Neighbor: Oh yeah, good to see you too. You will call right? When you are done?
Me: Yes, I’ll give you a shout.

Lord! What have I got myself into?

Domestication

So the new roomie starts moving his new stuff in tonight. I’m excited. It’s been some time since I had a roommate and I’m really looking forward to it. The fact I’ve known the hussy for years only adds to the comfort level.

The bad news is I STILL haven’t moved my desk, the dresser, or the bed frame yet. *sigh* I’ve been so lazy lately. Even my normal domestic chores have piled up. Today, I cleaned the kitchen and I had so many dirty dishes in the sink the dishwashwer was full. Hello! I’m one person. You can imagine how long the dishes had been piling up. In a way, the roomie moving in will help. Knowing someone else will see your mess can be very motivating. hehehe.

I’m sure you were just dying to hear all that but no one reads on the weekends anyway. I’m bound to have something new to say by Monday.

Housekeeping?

So Chad Fox came over last night w/his cousin from Chi’town. Little did I know they were just trying to ‘shart’ up my furniture.

*mental note – put out furniture covers when bloggers visit*

Actually, he came by after I got off work to return my helmet. I gave Chaddie boy a ride home the other night to the bowels of Northbeach aka crackaville. Like a good little boy, I made him wear a helmet. But I had nowhere to put it afterwards so he was kind enough to drag it with him last night from bar to bar until I got off work.

And if I were anywhere remotely close to being a chickenhawk, I would have been all over his little cousin. Cute and sweet, what a combo. Fortunately, the only chicken I’m into comes from Tyson. Hell, I never liked young boys even when I was one.

799 to 802

One of our regular callers died this past week. Harmless lady, just a bit addled by life and a little fuzzy in the logic dept. She would call us almost daily w/some new story about her husband or son stealing from her. (Both of which have been dead for years.)

The way the system works here is even if we know you are a complete loon, we have to send out the first call of the day to confirm you are, in fact, ok. The beat units know them just as well if not better than we. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see a medical call instead of PD at her address. Sadly, they discovered our dear 799 (senile person) was in fact an 802 (dead). All natural mind you. Nothing suspicious. But still very much 802. It upset several of my coworkers. Besides the obvious surprise, we were all very sad. We talk to her so much she almost felt like family. In the end, we decided to send flowers as a form of respect.

We actually have a whole contingent of crazies who call us often. Some worse than others. We have the “voodoo puppet victim” who is the worst offender and always spews obscenities. The lady who claims the KGB is running sex gadget all over her body as a form of mind control. Another sweet lady albeit loony as a jaybird. Then there is the guy who complains about the automated voice on muni buses harassing him wherever he goes. These are just a few of the more noteworthy ones. Sometimes, if we aren’t too busy, we spend time talking to them. Nothing revealing just casual conversation. Usually this serves to calm’em down and life goes on.

So, what’s your crazy person story?

Twinkle, Twinkle…

I’m in good spirits this morning. Even though, I got accused of being a fake today too! Honest Abe! Of course, it doesn’t matter that most of my favorites on the blogroll have already met me. ‘Cause, they are all fakes too. Riiiiiight. The emailer thought his attempt at being anonymous was clever but he sent it from the same IP he normally sends me email from. Tsk tsk tsk. It did give me a laugh though. (I kept thinking of an episode of Star Trek where this Admiral is out to find spies amongst the crew. She even accuses Picard of being one. I know, what a geek.)

In less dramatic developments, I finally cleaned off my desk. OY! What a chore that was. I’d let so much mail and stuff pile up it took me 2 and 1/2 hours to sort thru all of it. Course, I still have to move it into my room. The new roomie is moving in soon and I have to start shifting stuff around. Not really fair of me to dominate the living room w/my desk full of gadgets, gizmos, and mail. I also have to put away the air mattress. It’s still inflated from when brettcajun and homer were here. (was that subtle enough? *giggle*) Before I forget, anyone local need a dresser drawer set or a full size bed frame?

I’m getting back into my gym schedule again. Everytime I get a steady rhythm something happens it seems. It’s driving me nuts. My schedule is slowing down thankfully. yay! And speaking of, I know I haven’t posted the rest of the work out tips. I’m working on it.

Oh, don’t you hate when you forget to return a video? Especially, when the video store is only 3 blocks away!

In Other Sins…

So now that I’ve crawled down off the cross a bit, I could touch on other mindless updates. Chad Fox is coming over tonight to watch a mooovie with me. I’m making him wash the dishes in payment for standing me up yesterday. That’ll teach him.

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The weather here has been beautiful this week. Today was no exception. I went for a nice ride this morning along the beach. Very nice. It gave me a chance to clear my head a bit. Now that I’ve got a little experience under my belt, I’ll have to start looking for a riding buddy.

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I have another ride along w/the same medic crew scheduled for this next week. I can’t wait! They commented to my instructor that I was quick, eager, and competent!

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Did I mention we finally got a raise in our contract for work? It’s only 7% but added to the 8% we got last year it’s a good start. We are still way behind other cities in the area but it’s nice to see all my (our) hard work paying off. (Yeah, a 15% increase and we are STILL not up to par. How pathetic is that?) The 7% is only for a year w/a line opener in the contract however, it’s far easier to keep something than gain something when you’re dealing w/a city-gov. Our staffing won’t improve anywhere near enough for them to argue it away so I’m not worried. It’s effective July 1st. Yippeeee!!! (of course, I still can’t afford a condo in the city. *sigh*)

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In tivo world, I’m still loving the new Doctor Who on scifi. It rocks! And the series finale of Charmed is driving me nuts w/anticipation. They killed off two of the three sisters but Leo is back. OMG! The last episode is coming up soon and I can’t wait.

Told ya, I was back….Did ya miss me?