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Topics - 85 Day Jerk

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46
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Memories of First Foster Home
« on: September 22, 2004, 08:49:00 PM »
My first foster home was only 11 blocks from my grandfathers house.  I did not let on to this fact because I had signed myself in voluntarily, and did not wish to drag my grandparents into what was going on with me.  The father of the host home had served in Vietnam and was a former Green Beret I think.  His sons were pretty cool and everything I guess and I was simply trying to acclimate myself to the experience of being in Straight.  My comrade first phaser brother was a guy who I will refer to as "Norm".  He would grow to resemble Norm in the show "Cheers" as time went on, so please bear with me.  

The oldcomers were Lance and Lewis Cantrell.  They were pretty cool oldcomers to say the least.  Every night at that host home, they would make 2 quarts of iced tea which would be bolted down instantly by me and my 'brother'.  This home also contained an adorable 6 year old sister named Ashley who we would trip over ourselves fawning over. My own sister Sara was only 7 years old and I missed her severely.  

I will never forget one night in particular, when I was about to lay down on my sleeping bag and "Norm" says,"Holy shit, what is that?"  It turned out to be a huge ass banana spider resting on my sleeping bag.  Lance gingerly brushed it into a paper bag and we all giggled on down the stairs to the kitchen an up to the microwave oven.  It must have been around 10 o'clock at night on a Saturday, and Lance and Lewis slapped it into the microwave and turned the bitch on as we all stood in awed silence.  It took about 1 minute 38 seconds on low power to make the damn thing stop moving.  It was cool as hell!!!  Mary, the mom, called out "What is going on?"  "Just making some hot tea mom,"  is what Lewis said.  That was a cool memory of that place.

I remember one morning, I was combing my hair quite a bit, mostly out of a sense of boredom, and Lance snatched my comb away from me.  He started on this shit about that I had security in my hair.  I wanted my damn comb back.  I had paid for it myself, and it was one of my icons of independence seeing as to how it was mine all mine.  I pitched a bitch saying that it was my goddamned property and to give it back.  Norm said ,"What's the problem Bob, it's just a comb man!"  I said, "It's not the comb man, it's the fucking PRICIPLE,!!!!" To which he replied, "What exactly IS a FUCKING PRINCIPLE Bob?"  Does it have something to do with hairdressers you want to have sex with?"  I was fucking flabbergasted!!

They gave me my comb back in the car.

47
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Tales From The Darkside (Friday)
« on: August 28, 2004, 06:16:00 PM »
I went back to the original crew Friday, and in typical fashion the ringleader of the brothers did not show up for work that day.  He must have gotten his paycheck in the mail.  The day went surprisingly easy and we had some good cloud cover so it did not get hot until after 3pm.  Since "Red" the amazing jive ass slacker was not present, we actually got some work done in a timely manner and that helped keep the Area Supervisor off our ass for a change.  He did however make us take just a half hour for lunch and the guys acted like it was gonna kill them.

With the absence of the troublemaking instigator I was able to explain to the younger guys what Bipolar Disorder is and how it affected me when I was their age.  I had to bat down all the typical beliefs and misconceptions such as..........

What drugs I must have done to cause it.

A bad experience or set back that made me "snap."

That because I have it, I could snap at any moment and start swinging on people.

By telling them this I have accomplished two things.  They now know that I am different from them, yet we work along side each other and that it is easier to just roll up your sleeves and get the damn job done, than bullshit and try to jive the boss with lame ass excuses.  Secondly, the first person to harass me and make degrading comments will get his well tanned ass fired since the crew chief was present, but I really don't want it to come to that.  All in all, it was a pretty good day and we even got to sit out a thundershower for a little over an hour.  Everyone went home in good spirits and the crew was even tripping off the decal I have on the back window of my truck. I am not as pissed off at them as I was earlier in the week.

For those of you that have never been to St. Petersburg Florida, I must say that it is one of the most segregated cities in the nation.  White people live on the Northside, while blacks live on the side south of Central Avenue, the rich Whiteys done grabbed up all the cool bayfront property, thus boxing them in to neighborhoods that have some of the oldest structures in the city.  I-275 only has 3 exits for the whole Southside, while the Northside has 7.  We still have a long way to go as a city.  Another thing about me is that I live in a 28 unit building right on the edge of downtown that has 6 bi-racial couples, a Morraccan family, and the rest are black and white 50-50.  Now what would a racist Southern Man be doing living here, hmmm?
Well, I gotta go because we have to set up the tables in the courtyard for another Scrabble marathon.

48
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Yet Another Observation
« on: August 24, 2004, 01:37:00 AM »
I an now working a temp job for the City of St. Pete repairing sidewalks made of Hexagon blocks.  It is very very hot and heavy work.  During the course of today's work the sun began to bake my brain and the lithium in my bloodstream helped to bring some thoughts to the surface.

I seem to remember a pattern in the various Straight Buildings whereby they would only graduate a handful of clients during the course of the entire summer.  These were mostly out of state kids, or the kiss ass types who were either staff trainees, or were about to get sucked into the vortex.  Regular kids were left to rot on their phases until the end of summer.

I think this is because there were a shitload of intakes as soon as school was out in May or early June because parents did'nt want their kids around to fuck up yet another summer for them and Straight could not afford the loss of host homes for us darlings. ( I myself was placed in the program on June 16, 1978)  There were usually mass graduations during Open Meeting in late August or early September.  By then, the summer intakes that "got with the program" had made 2nd phase or even 3rd, thus becoming a host home and allowing for some more graduations.  Looking back on it, I now remember people graduating that really had not done much at all exept house newcomers that summer.

One such person was my older stepbrother.  I think he may have related a total of 9 or 10 times from April to August 1979 and he was a 5th phaser for Christ's sakes!  When he did relate, it was mindless drivel that a casual observer would think were the ramblings of someone high on pot.  He played the game pretty good and had entered the program 8 months ahead of me and had been on 5th phase for 5 months I think it was.  Our house usually took on 5 newcomers at a time and we were pretty good at cranking them out onto 2nd phase.

My own 5th phase only lasted 27 days.  I really do not remember it much, it was so damn fast.  The stress was pretty bad and I felt compelled to leave a lasting impression or something.  The night I seven stepped came as a complete surprise.  I was actually kind of pissed off because there was alot more that I wanted to do. When I got home that night, it all kind of hit me.  This is it, these strangers that I have been living with are my family.  I was stuck in this house in this shitty outskirt of Pinellas Park with two stepbrothers I cannot stand, a self centered bitch of a step-mom, and a completely pussy whipped father that I was still a stranger to.

My real home was 17 miles away in Largo, my mom was down to just one sister now, struggling to make ends meet on foodstamps and such.  They did not know what to make of this brainwashed behavior-modified freak that had once been a son and brother to them.  The neighborhood had changed.  The recession had devastated several families and they had moved away.  Homes showed signs of neglect, and made life with my dad seem like a better alternative so I was caught between both worlds.  This still bugs me to this day.  I was caught between two worlds and wound up cast out of both.  I did'nt ask for this shit.  I did'nt want it, and I certainly did not do anything to deserve it.  After Straight, I found it damn near impossible to bond with anyone, especially women.  Those on this board that I have reached a rapport with, I want you to know that I really treasure it.

I was doing laundry Sunday and in walked a girl with more legs than a bucket of chicken, hard body, no tatoos, face a little hard and slightly blotched complexion, but still impishly cute.  It took me a complete wash cycle and half the dryer time before I finally settled on a way to break the ice.  I asked her how she made out during the hurricane and she seemed unflustered by it.  I thought for sure that she would pick up on it and we would be on a roll, but she just acted as if I had said, "Nice weather we're having is'nt it?"  We both retreated back into our uncomfortable silence.  Every now and then she would catch me glancing her way and then she would smile.  It was an eerie smile, like she knew something about me but was trying hard not to show it.  Finally, my clothes were all dry and folded.  There was nothing left to do but leave.  I felt totally defeated as I swung out the door with my basket of laundry.  I was kicking myself for not trying harder and buried my frustration by turning up the CD player and letting the ear-shattering opening riffs of L7 ease my frustration.  I let out the clutch and started to roll away as Donita Sparks began screaming out the lyrics to "Shove."
A quick glance in the mirror brought about a small feeling of victory.  The girl had stepped out for a cigarette.  She lit one and looked over my way.  She still had that damn smile of hers.  Oh well, maybe next weekend.

49
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Hurricaine Charley
« on: August 13, 2004, 02:25:00 PM »
Hello everyone.  It's about 2:30 pm and forcasters have said that the Hurricaine should reach the Tampa Bay area around 8pm.  I live on the second floor of a concrete building just above the evacuation area and my main worry is that the windows will blow out.  That would really suck.  Everything is closed now and many businesses are boarded up.  The roads are pretty empty of traffic as well.  I took a ride a while ago and it reminded me of Christmas Day.  There is a quiet calm as everyone braces themselves for what will come next.  

As for me, I am as nervous as a whore in church and will try to give a blow by blow account of the storm later on if the power holds up.  See you all later.

50
...........but here goes;  Picketing Baywalk right now would be pretty stupid for the following reasons -
1.   The weather is attrocious, I mean it is like 90 degrees every day.  Nobody wants to stand in the hot-ass sun and listen to a bunch of people they could'nt give a rat's ass about (unless the speaker had lots of cleavage and an ass like a nectarine) because they just want to get their candy ass into some AC as quickly as possible.

2.   The main attraction there right now is just the movie theatres and a few trendy bars.  The rest is just window dressing and get this folks, Sembler's company is having to subsidize some of the tenant's rents because business is so fuckin lousy there.  I know this for a fact, because my downstairs neighbor works at Cristo's, an upscale clothing store for wealthy women.  This project came about from the ashes of Bay Plaza Development which used to run the Pier (which by the way is also chock full of tacky ass shops that nobody in their right mind would visit more than once) and like the Pier, Baywalk runs on the old Melvin Business Philosophy "THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE" which allows him to operate such a cheezy ass complex.  With a seemingly endless supply of tourists and dumbasses and a local population pushing 1 million, the money is in the bag so to speak.  As far as I know, Baywalk is already paid for so it can afford to suffer.  

3.   Lastly, people cannot be "made" to care.  It is not like in the program, when someone would stand up and relate about their heavies and we would be forced to show "empathy and sensitivity" and all that other crap.  People want to see a show.  They wanna see cops busting skulls in and bloodshed and buildings in flames and shit.  The best thing we could do as protesters is do a live presentation of the Bingo play and hand out informative flyers, or maybe stage some live music, but sadly most of the alumni down here would suddenly realize that it might "harsh their buzz" to stand outside in 90 degree heat where they have to park 3 blocks away and move the car every hour and a half, or else park in the Sembler Garage for about $7.50 and for what?

In closing I will just say what I would like to do about all this shit.  I think it is about time I gather all my stuff together into a small booklet and make it available to the public.  I will try to keep the cost down and get it into circulation as cheaply as possible.  We had a small regional best seller here called "Tampa Triangle Dead Zone."  I was lucky enough to get to know the co-author of the book, and found out that it is not all that hard to get something published once you know the right people.  I know that in the past couple of years I have touched the lives of many of you and I have a certain flair for writing, so if you don't hear from me as often as usual, it is because I am writing elsewhere.  Make the most of what's left of this summer, take care............  Bob in St. Pete

51
I launched my kayak this afternoon from the Bay Pines War Memorial Park to gain access to the Cross Bayou area.  There had been talk around 2003 of making it into a full fledged canoe trail, but I guess the County Parks Department has put it on hold until the upcoming elections are over.
I was a little leary of the powerboaters that were hauling ass all over Boca Ciega Bay, but soon found that the water up near the bridge and Pinellas Trail extension was too shallow for them.
As I neared the pilings supporting the Pinellas Trail, I soon found out why.  The engineers had never bothered to remove the old stone and shell causeway that had once supported the old Coastline Railway bed, making passage nearly impossible for anything without a very shallow draft.  I actually had to double back until I found a gap that only spanned a mere four support pilings wide area marked by some very small buoys that I had missed on my first pass.  This was made so that a few scant boats could make it into a marina on the other side.  All in all, the area is very safe for canoes or kayaks to navigate.

Once I got into the Cross Bayou section, I headed immediately to the area that ran along Park Street and it was'nt long before I was paddling right up to the backside of the old Milton Roy Building which had housed the very biggest of all the Straight Programs.  I could clearly see the old caged in dock area where if we were good, Chris Casselor would lead guys raps from and I remembered this one rap where a huge afternoon storm came off the bay in the middle of the rap and the rain came down with hurricaine force, but we just kept right on up with it and got soaked to the skin with the rain blowing in sideways through the chain link fencing.  

A little ways to the right was a meadow like area where they actually let us have outside raps until this guy named Mike from Tampa tried to split one early evening and brought it all to a close.  In all, I was a part of I think 5 or 6 outside raps which were treasured by all, because we got in touch with nature and could see Great Blue Herons and other water birds fly by as we all talked.  It was the scene of my very first "Love Rap" and watching the sun come down on this beautiful bayou area was breathtaking.

Now I am not trying to downplay the atrocities that happened in that facility, it is just that some poigniantly painful memories came up is all.
They had the perfect setting, yet they could not control it, or us for that matter, and after the Tampa Screw-up, this place had simply lost it's luster for the scum-bags that ran it.  Once the Tampa families pulled out, there simply was not enough of a strong money base to continue operations there and that is when they pulled up stakes and moved us all into the Morgan Yacht Building behind Tyrone Square Mall.  I hear tell that that is where the Seed first started.

I will leave you all with this......  The same damn building that was once called Milton Roy is now up for lease.  Let's just pray that a legitimate firm rents it out.  Happy 4th to everyone, Love, the one and only 85 Day Jerk

52
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / A moment of clarity
« on: July 03, 2004, 11:54:00 PM »
I have been wanting to learn to play guitar better and be in a band for quite some time now and was thinking about a good name for a Tribute Band for our experiences with Straight Inc.  After countless names having to do with everything ranging from the death of Helen Petermann, to Mel Sembler's penis pump exploding, I have settled on a quaint and simple yet powerful name.  DAMN STRAIGHT.  I think it fits.  It could mean many different things and yet still comes back that Straight Inc. should be damned for all time.  Plus it's a little less offensive than the "Motivate This" logo and would be a bit more acceptable.

I finally broke down and splurged $225 dollars and had Franken'Strat rewired with a new Seymour Duncan hot rail and tuning keys.  It had sat immoble and useless for over 10 years and enough was enough.  The damn thing sounds like an Eddie Ball now, and even though I had to put it all on plastic, I think it was worth it.  I take lessons every Tuesday from a lady who is older than Yoda who holds a doctorate in music as well as several published compositions.  I just work part time 5 hours a day now, so that leaves plenty of time for practice.

I want to do a blood and guts rendering of our Straight Experience done to the rarely heard Stooges tune called "Open up and Bleed."  Feel free to send me your own lyrics concerning this.
I remember there were some early eighties grads that lived in the Largo/Seminole area and had a garage band going for awhile.  E-mail me if you are still around.  See ya later :wave:

53
Wow, this is gonna be a long post.  Led Zeppelin were the quintescential GODS of rock and roll in the Tampa Bay area during most of the seventies.  They had played Tampa Stadium only once before, in 1973, and set the Guiness World Record for highest attendance. Seventy One Thousand and another 6 thousand "gate crashers."  To get up the money to buy a ticket, I had 2 of my lawn mowing accounts pay me in dime bags, then I cut the pot with Jasmine Tea and rolled bomber joints which I sold at school for a dollar each.  I got my ticket from Budget Tapes and Records for 10 dollars plus a $2.50 service charge which was astronomical in those pre ticketmaster days.

On the day of the concert, my stepbrother joined me and my dad took us to Tampa Stadium, and my mom would pick us up after the concert.  I may have just finished my high school freshman year, but I was no fool.  I hid a dime bag of some good weed between my Levi's and an Aluminum timing chain which also served as a belt/formidable weapon in case any shit went down.  I purposely oiled the shit out of it in case the cops wanted to pat me down or some shit.  My step brother was scarred shitless when we first went up to the gate and saw all the shit they were confisating from the kids.  He had a half pint of rum on him and was afraid to get in line.  I bent down and picked up a Frisbee and showed him how to hold the bottle inside the Frisbee with his thumb and fingers.  He fuckin held it out to his side as they patted him down and they never knew it was there!!

Once we were inside, the excitement soon wore off as we realized we were in for a long ass wait.  We got there around 4pm and they had opened the gates around 10 that morning to allow for smooth crowd control.  The Outlaw Motorcyle Club had commandeered the front near the stage and I saw no reason to get my head smashed in, so we hung back.  The air was electric, and every time they played a cool song over the p a speakers the crowd would cheer.  My stepbrother pointed out a tall black man dressed as a pimp, with a trench coat that contained thousands of bags of every drug known to man fastened to the insides of it.  He had on a large purple hat with a huge purple Ostrich feather sticking out.  Naturally I was dared to knock the hat off his head with a cup of ice, and naturally I gave it a shot.  We spent the next 2 hours ducking a very pissed off Negro.

Finally Led Zeppelin took to the stage.  There had been large thunderclouds gathering all afternoon, and halfway through the second song, the sky opened up like a goddamn Charleton Heston biblical movie.  Within minutes about 77 thousand freaks were completely soaked to the skin.  It was the biggest Wet T-shirt contest I have ever seen, but we all just stood there like idiots waiting for the band to continue.  John Bonham the drummer was scared to death of lightning and refused to go back onstage.  Jimmy Page managed to get up a few licks once the rain stopped, but was stopped short by a steady drizzle of rain.  They packed it in and secretly left the stadium.  After about another 30 minutes, the bikers started raising hell and then this promoter faggotty looking bitch wearing the widest pair of bell bottoms I ever saw in my life comes out and announces that the concert has been cancelled due to the weather and to get this......HOLD ON TO YOUR TICKET STUBS!!!!  This is where it all started kids.  They were supposed to return Sunday afternoon for a special show and then on to Miami that night.  I was'nt buying it, and neither were the Outlaws.  Soaked fans were scrambling through the mud snapping up the previously "useless" ticket stubs and some were even fighting over them.  The Kansas City Faggot was frantically lisping into the microphone for people to remain calm and I just stood there stoned and drunk watching the riot unfold.  Presently people began throwing things and even began to storm the stage and trash the drum set.  That is when Tampa's Finest decided to do a re-enactment of Birmingham Alabama with a Tampa Twist.  These fuckin brutes simply threw up the leashes and let loose about 19 police dogs into the crowd.  The place went apeshit almost instantaniously.  After seeing bikers turned into ALPO most folks decided it was a good time to take up jogging.  Only thing was, they all were jogging towards me in a human tidal wave of panic. I turned around and hauled my 14 year old ass towards the gate I came in at, only now I was on the field, and the gate was up in the stands.  I was so fucking scared, I was running over anything in my way, including other people.  Finally, I got near my gate and saw that I would have to grab a rail and pull myself up.  The jump was gonna be about 7 1/2 feet.  I caught the bar on the damn way DOWN folks!!!!  I shot down the dark hallway and into the setting sunlight and slid to a stop by this old Stadium Janitor with a handclicker.  He boomed out "forty one!"  "Forty One what man?"  I said gasping for breath.  "You the foity fust Zeppelin Dickweed to run through this here gate."  I thanked him and went off in search of my stepbrother.  It was another 3 hours before order was restored.

54
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Touched by a Ghost
« on: May 30, 2004, 04:02:00 AM »
I am going through the process of starting a band and when I saw an ad in the "Flyer" last week for a Fender Frontman amplifier, I called the number and arranged to check it out Thursday after work.  I work in mid Pinellas, near Pinellas Park High School, which was targeted quite heavily by Straight, and was even mentioned in the high school paper, "The Powderhorn Press."

      The amplfier was in Bellair, which is a ritzy subdivision west of Largo.  As I got closer to my destination, I had an overpowering sense of Deja-vu.  Suddenly I spied a street sign on the left that was out of place with the others.  It was a street called Leona, when all the others were named after trees or flowers.  I still had about a mile to go and soon forgot about the street.  The amp was in good shape and a hell of a steal at 50 dollars, so I bought it and headed for home.  I went back the same way I came, and as I got closer to the mysterious Leona Street, it hit me like a ton of bricks.  This was the street that Briget and Aldo Bolinger had lived on.  I suddenly remembered the time I drove Aldo to his house to pick up a football when we all were having a picnic at nearby Taylor Park with a bunch of 7 Steppers.

Someone had posted a bunch of names, looking for people awhile back.  I don't know if the parents still live there, but they probably still do so it might be worth a shot to look it up in the Property Appraisers data base.

55
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Jerry Vancil
« on: May 29, 2004, 12:23:00 AM »
Jerry Vancil is the name of the kid who disappeared after blowing the whistle on Straight back in 1977.  He looked sort of like the lead guitarist for Iggy and the Stooges.  The criminal world has a long history of utilizing construction projects as a neat and permanent way of disposing of bodies.  One such construction project that was in progress at the time of Jerry Vancil's vanishing was the Pinellas Square Mall.

Well guess what kids?  They are gonna be tearing out huge chunks of that mall for renovations.  The mall was built in 1977 and has since lost it's usefullness.  I am just waiting for the crews to start tearing stuff up and discover the bones of a young male approximate age 17.  Here's the best part....... the man behind the project?
None other than Mel Sembler, can you dig it? (pun definately intended)

56
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / A Few Thoughts on Religion
« on: May 09, 2004, 03:17:00 PM »
If you all go back in your minds, you may remember a time long ago in your childhood when some grownup taught you a little poem that actually used your own hands as props.  No X-Box, death metal, funny haircut or tatoos were required.  All you needed was the bright eyed wonder of a child and the guidance of someone loving and caring.  This inter-active experience went as follows........  With both hands clasped together you would both say, "Here is the Church."
Then you would extend your index fingers and say, "Here is the Steeple."  Finally your would draw your wrists out and expose all the fingers wiggling inside and then say, "Open the doors and see all the People,"  because that is all religion is really, simply the people who choose to gather on a certain day in a certain building.

It is no different than the people who go to Nascar, or sporting events, Hooters, or Starbucks.  It all has to do with faith.  Faith in God, or your higher power, faith that your dogs will win the Trifecta at Derby Lane, or the Bucs will win the Superbowl, or that your Hooter Girl that brings the wings is not packing saline implants. It is all about faith, nothing more nothing less.

I can tell when people have lost faith in themselves by the way they are so damn quick to take God out of the equation and replace it with Bullshit, like AIDS or crack cocaine, problems that won't go away and then rub it in the faces of those that try to do something with their lives and try to make a difference in the lives of others.  People like that can critisise and ridicule me til the cows all go to McDonalds for a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.  Go ahead, I'll just pray for your self deluded sorry ass and we'll see which is more powerful in the end.

57
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Trubba wit da Dubbya
« on: May 08, 2004, 09:20:00 AM »
Listen up race fans!! This coming week is gonna be a super-calla-fragmentatious bang up demolition blowout on whats left of Iraq!  

Actually, I am just speculating, but I have seen an average of 3 KC-135 tanker planes and one C-141 Starlifter heading into MacDill Airforce Base where the Central Command Headquarters is based every day for the past 3 days.  Them boys are up to something I guess.  Every time I see a bunch of activity around here, something wild happens in the Middle East usually within 2 or 3 days.

I for one am tickled pink over the recent developments and the so called "scandal" over the treatment of Iraqi prisoners.  Some inside guys are spinning the American Will into a new and different direction for a change.  I am all for it. In a way I am glad that gasoline costs as much as it does, because it is keeping alot of real bonafide ASSHOLES off of the roads.  I don't see a prevalance of SUV's that much any more either.  I personally think that in the coming months, the focus will shift to the Carribean and Cuba, because those are two spots that are getting hotter by the minute.

I know this post don't have much to do with Straight, or what we all went through, but I am filled with glee that the dumbass son of the Senior President Bush is about to land on his ass and get voted out of office.  George Sr. went along with Straight's bullshit and endorsed the program simply because it was as crooked and full of shit as him and his whole circus.

58
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Back Online
« on: May 07, 2004, 07:26:00 PM »
Back in February I decided it was better to move from my apartment building of 14 years than to drive my car into the Manager couple's wall mounted air-conditioner in the alley at 30 or 40 MPH around 3 in the morning and turning it into a deadly schrappnel bomb flying about the room, killing anything in it's path.  No shit, I was seriously considering doing this sort of thing because the landlord/tenant dispute had gotten that bad over the past year.  I ended up finding a suitable apartment just 7 blocks over and moved in without having to pay a deposit because I had good credit and passed the background check with flying colors.  Charo adjusted pretty well to the new place and the neighbors all like her.  I even have a balcony now.  The move was a pain in the butt because I did not want the manager to know what was going on, but she just stayed inside and went on a 4 day drunk so I did'nt have to soil my Louisville Slugger with her skanky blood.

It took most of Feb just getting settled in and figuring out the best furniture arrangements and crap.  Work started picking up in March and I was able to start building my bank account back up to where it was before the move.  Then comes March 11, when I am just getting ready to leave a McDonald's after having lunch and this cute little Samoan girl with no drivers license does a Starsky and Hutch right into the back of my Supra while driving her mom's car.  She confessed to having no license before the cops got there, so I played it cool and when the cop never asked to see her license, I waited until he handed me the report and drove away to hold this over her.  She did not want to go to jail, and I just wanted compensation so basically, her daddy bought what was left of my car for $800 bucks.  I then went to my bank and asked for a credit report to see how much I could get on a new car loan.  The guy at the bank gave me a pass to get into a special Distress Sale that was getting set up at Tropicana Field in the baseball dome.  It was chock full of repo's and default automobiles.  If the cars were'nt sold that weekend, they would have to go to auction and the banks and car lot would lose their ass on it all.  That all said, I am now the proud new owner of a 2002 Ford Ranger.

Everything worked out well for me in the end.  I finally got back online today and browsed over the board to see what all I missed.  Nothing much has changed, just that Patriot is using the same avatar as Dr. Frank'nFurter, whom I noticed has'nt been around since late December.  Maybe he is hiding from Van Helsing or something.  Well anyway, I'm glad to be back and go ahead and send me an e-mail.  (No dirty pictures though, we don't wanna start that up again now do we?)

59
Straight, Inc. and Derivatives / Something Cute and Funny as Hell
« on: December 05, 2003, 06:36:00 AM »
I recently purchased a slightly used CD of "White Blood Cells"  by the duo known as White Stripes.  It seems kind of fitting for all the medical crap I have gone thru since Thanksgiving.  I was pole-axed and laid out cold by a combination of Strep Throat, Congunctivitis, Bronchitus, Common Cold, Influenza A, and the goddamn Mumps!!  A sneaky little bastard strain of the Mumps found a way to hang on, by shifting all through my entire sinus/mucous gland system and as soon as it lost the battle in my respiratory tract, it took up shop in my right saliva gland.  I had to pay $120 dollars plus office visit for a blood screening, but the doctor said I have enough White Blood Cells now to heal a bullet wound instantly. (kidding) The side of my face was all swollen like I had tried to swallow a large bagel whole and that was due to a severe bacterial infection that was feeding off of all the dead Mumps virus cells in my saliva gland.  This sort of thing had been plaguing me for the past ten cold and flu seasons and I am just glad that I finally got it nipped in the bud after all these years.

Well, enough of the Health Lesson, while looking up info on White Stripes, I found this link that is cool as hell....................enjoy!!!!! ::rocker::

http://www.rathergood.com/punk_kittens/

60
Posted on Fri, Nov. 28, 2003  
 
`Blitz' sale floors woman
BY ALICIA A. CALDWELL
The Orlando Sentinel

ORANGE CITY, Fla. - (KRT) - When the siren rang at precisely 6 a.m. Friday to kick off the Wal-Mart Supercenter's five-hour "blitz" sale, Patricia VanLester was first in line to grab a $29 DVD player.

Her sister, 48-year-old Linda Ellzey, waited just four feet away with a shopping cart. But before VanLester, 41, could inch her way through the crowd with the prized Christmas gift for their mother she was knocked to the ground by a frenzy of shoppers.

"She got pushed down, and they walked over her like a herd of elephants," Ellzey said. "I told them: `Stop stepping on my sister! She's on the ground!'"

Before paramedics arrived, Ellzey said, VanLester did not recognize her and did not know where she was, nor did she remember what had happened after being flown to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

Ellzey did not know what her sister's condition was late Friday afternoon. She said doctors told the family that VanLester had a seizure after she was knocked down and would likely remain hospitalized at least overnight. VanLester has no history of seizures or other medical conditions, Ellzey said.

Hospital officials would not confirm whether VanLester was admitted.

VanLester and her sister got to the Wal-Mart at 3:30 a.m. in search of ink for a computer printer. They decided to stay when they realized the "blitz" would start in just 2 1/2 hours. They figured that way they were guaranteed an Apex DVD player that would go on sale for $29.87, Ellzey said from her sister's Orange City home.

Mark O'Keefe, a spokesman for EVAC Ambulance, said witnesses told paramedics that when VanLester was knocked to the ground she hit her head and started convulsing.

"A mob knocked her to the ground," O'Keefe said.

Valerie Calabrese, 42, of Deltona said Friday afternoon that when she saw VanLester got knocked down, she and her two children decided to get out of the store.

"They bombarded her," Calabrese said. A woman and her two children joked about taking the DVD player that VanLester was clutching, Calabrese said.

"There was a lady there and her two kids were laughing about it, joking about it, saying, `Mom's going to take it.'"

When Orange City and EVAC paramedics got to the store they found VanLester lying on her left side on top of the DVD player, surrounded by shoppers who were seemingly oblivious to the unconscious woman, O'Keefe said

Employees referred all questions to Wal-Mart's headquarters. Suzanne Haney, a spokeswoman in Arkansas, said two store managers cleared the crowd from around VanLester and called paramedics.

"The people were all around this woman," O'Keefe said. "They would not move as the ambulance crew arrived and tried to get to the woman. They were concerned about one thing, bargain shopping."

Orange City Fire Department Lt. Richard Beauregard said his paramedics also had to wade through the crowd to get to VanLester.

"They were more concerned about what they were doing than getting out of way of the paramedics," said Beauregard.

The Wal-Mart spokeswoman said she did not know why the company's version of events differed from pararmedics' accounts.

"From what I was told, the two managers cleared the crowd," Haney said.

Ellzey said some shoppers tried to help VanLester, forming a barrier around her, and one employee did help her get to her sister. Most people, though, just continued their rush for deals.

"People just walked over her like she wasn't there, like they didn't even care," Ellzey said.

Ellzey said Wal-Mart officials called Friday afternoon to ask about her sister. She said the store also apologized and offered to put the DVD player on hold.

---

 
This is how it is here almost everyday in the more populated cities.  There is no real sense of community anymore, because at the end of any given day, there just is nothing left for the fellow man.  Things like Company Picnics, Employee Appreciation Day, or group discounts are a thing of the past.  Even city sponsored events like RibFest, Taste of Pinellas, Clearwater Jazz Fest, St. Pete Blues Fest, World of Wheels, Boat Shows, etc, are no longer free to the public.  Everything carries a price tag.  I am just thankful that I still live in an area where I can walk along a beautiful waterfront and enjoy what is left of it on a daily basis.  I must nod greetings to other walkers and joggers over 100 times before returning home.  I have had women buy me drinks just on the strength of those small little gestures when they recognize me later on in the week at downtown events.  I bought myself an early Christmas present in the form of a used Kayak and I took it out briefly Thanksgiving Morning thinking no-one would be at the boat ramp.  It was a little claustrophobic at first cramming my legs into the shell and scootching off the ramp and into the Bayou.  The sun had just come up, and was right in my eyes with a light mist coming off of the water.  I was startled by a couple of women joggers rounding the bend at the other side of the ramp, and as I admired the way their butts moved, I did a power slide into the Mangroves and almost lost the paddle. I decided not to press my luck so I packed it into the hatchback and dropped it off at my friends house for later use.  Without him, I would not have bought it in the first place, cuz I had no place to store it.  As I drove home I reflected that what I have to be thankful for are my friends, and the fact that I am finally in control of my environment.  I have managed to stay in the same place for so long that I have the upper hand over anyone else.  I know where everything is, know all the shortcuts, know where to find parking downtown, best restaurants, stores, schools, facilities, etc.  I guess the biggest thing is that I don't let unfortunate actions of others get to me the way I used to.  I am not really sure how much the Wal-Mart story got around, but I hope people wind up learning from it.  I hope everyone had a good ThanksGiving and y'all have an even better Christmas.  God Bless you all............ :smile:

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