What Is Wrong With People?

Let me tell you about sometihing that happened while I was at The Lube Faerie's party on Saturday night:

Around midnight a number of us were sitting around the fire ring when we started hearing what sounded like very loud fireworks at their next door neighbor's house. This being PA where fireworks are legal, and it being the weekend before the July Fourth holiday, this didn't phase me. A very short time later, the police were at the neighbors house. You could see them in the driveway with guns drawn, yelling, "Get your hands up, get your hands up!" We all immediate ran into the house and stayed there. The cops were at this house for a while after that.

Well, yesterday, we found out what had happened. It wasn't fireworks. This guy was extremely drunk, and upset about neighbor's complaints about his dogs barking. So, he took three of his four dogs into his kitchen and shot them with a rifle. Two of them were killed. The police found their bodies thrown in the back yard. The third was found injured and in a dog crate and was taken to an animal hospital. The fourth dog he didn't touch because it was evidently a prized hunting dog.

Now, this man's wife was home at the time. Lucky he wasn't upset with her. And we are lucky he didn't do this outside, as there were kids running around the place. What the hell would posess someone to do something like this? I was upset and sickened to hear about it. I cannot get it out of my mind. It is just so unbelieveable. Almost surreal.

The man is in jail in lieu of $10,000 bond. I'm hoping he gets the book thrown at him. I'm hoping that the SPCA comes to take the remaining dogs away from him(I heard that the injured dog was returned to the home). I hope that the police confiscated all of his guns. I hope this guy's wife has the good sense to get far away from him before she is next.

A Good, Long Weekend

I just typed a very long post detailing my weekend and how good it was, and somehow, Google ate it when I hit the "post" button. When will I learn to copy first? I'm not retyping it. Suffice it to say that everything about the weekend was awesome- I partied hardy, I fished, I read poetry, I kayaked- and I am hoping for a repeat this coming weekend. I hope that everyone else had a nice weekend, also.

Thursday By The Numbers

1. Lucky me. After a brief talk with the boss this afternoon, I am leaving work tonight four hours early, at 7:00. And I have tomorrow off,although I'm not getting paid for it. I need the nice long weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

2. It rained again last night. I got up early to cut the grass, but it was still wet, so back to bed I went. I slept until time to get ready for work. There was really nothing else to do, and AM television sucks for the most part.

3. No rain today yet. It's not supposed to rain tonight or tomorrow either. Yeah, right. I'll believe it when it doesn't happen. If it doesn't I'll cut the grass tomorrow and take the kayak out. Tell me if you are getting tired of hearing about the kayak. I can't help it. I love it.

4. I try, but I just cannot seem to keep my car clean on the inside. I vaccuum it out and wipe it down once a week, but it does no good. I don't know what it is about this car. I didn't seem to have this problem with the truck. Or maybe it's just me. Maybe I didn't care as much with the truck because it was a truck.

5. When you have absolutely nothing to do, go to Wiki and read the history of and story behind the Beatles song, I Am The Walrus. It's all very interesting. And it's interesting to see what other bands have covered it.

6. While you are at Wiki, look up the definition of the word "pica". Also very interesting. I know a number of people who indulged in pica as children. I know I did.

7. Everyone Have a great, great weekend. Party on, Wayne. Party on, Garth.

Well, I got up and got a little accomplished this morning. I haven't got my grass cut yet, but I did get my kayak out on the water this morning for an hour or so before the rain came again. It is getting ready to storm again right now. The dark clouds are just rolling in from the west.

I'm looking forward to a long, three day weekend. I'm off on Friday night because I have a poetry reading to do with the poetry group. On Saturday I'm doing yard work if its nice and going to a party in the evening at the Lube Faerie's, in lovely Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. Sunday will be more kayaking, weather permitting, and bass fishing no matter what the weather brings. I'll probably do some grilling, as well.

I'm dreading work after tonight because we will have no shipments coming in for the next four days.This is because of a transportation change that is taking place. Our Japan shipments used to come off the ships in Los Angeles, then were railed across the country to us. They stopped that. Now the ships will come through the Panama Canal and up the Atlantic coast to Port Elizabeth, which is close to here. There is this transition period where we will get no shipments, and this is it. It’s always difficult to find productive things for people to do when this happens, and I get so bored myself with all of my employees off working in other departments. At least I'll be able to get some writing done.

Overtaken

This is inevitable. I sleep. I wake up.
The whiskers grow all night
and every morning I chop them off.
The sound of the traffic out
on the highway is constant.
I drive the hour to work,
then I drive it back home. The same
faceless drivers are always out there.
They weave, careen, slam on brakes,
fill the highways with chaos.

I take my pills- colored ones in the morning,
white ones in the evening. I cook, eat, and shit,
over and again each day. I must take a leak
a dozen times. The television spews
news and entertainment nonstop,
and so does the radio. It gets to be just
noise after a while. So does hearing
people talk sometimes, endless streams
of words and phrases coming from out
of millions of mouths to pollute the air
like huge flocks of dirty birds that block
the sun from view.

And everywhere I look there are clocks
and watches of all sorts, drumming
the rhythm of endless time. They pound out
the eternal cadence of minutes and hours
that drag like an anchor on the ocean
floor, drag like Elliot’s ragged claws
along the beach, sullen and cold-blooded.
Mindless machines, they haunt me.

Sometimes when I think about all of it,
how it happens continually, days, weeks,
years, I want to open a vein. This is called
tedium, and it overtakes me like a deep case
of the blues. I wallow, then turn to rust.

The Best Laid Plans

Well, I got up early this morning as planned yesterday. It was overcast and windy. The weather radio said there was a 40% chance of rain. I went back to bed, didn't even attempt to cut the grass. I just didn't feel up to trying to rush around to get it done before the rain. As it turned out, it has not rained as of yet. In fact, the skies are partly clear right now.There is supposed to be no rain tomorrow, so I will try again.

I'm starting to think about my vacation now, which is only five weeks away from now. I think I am taking the kayak with me, as my father was talking about taking the canoes to a new park while I am there. I now will not need to take my bike with me, as my sister, the queen of garage sales, picked up a brand new mountain bike for $15 this past weekend as an extra ride for me. There is not a lot planned out ahead of time this visit. Of course, me having to bring the dogs with me put a damper on a couple of things, like going camping while I'm there. That's alright, though. I plan on spending a lot of time just taking it easy.

Work is very busy tonight, and will be tomorrow as well. After that, however, we are not supposed to have any shipments coming in until July 1st, which leaves us with four days with absolutely nothing to do. We will have to be creative in order to keep people busy. Of course we will offeer people the opportunity to take time off, but not everyone will do that. Most are saving their time for family summer vacations right now.

Well, I'm off to read some blogs. More later...

I've Been Happier

One word can describe how I feel right now, and that word is "miffed". First of all, it rained all weekend again. I didn't get to take the kayak out again, and my lawn is now at official grazing height. We are supposed to get a break over the next couple of days though, so that's a good thing.

Second, I asked what you might call a favor of sorts of someone I have been very close to for a long time. The hurtful thing wasn't so much that I was told no, but that I was made to feel like shit for even asking, which really wasn't necessary.

On the other side of things, I had a good time at the house warming party on Saturday. It's nice to be with friends. I also had a good time with the kids yesterday. The early dinner was very pleasing, and I only missed winning at miniature golf by one stroke. I scored a 63. And I haven't held a club in my hands in years.

No work for my department again tonight, and all of my employees are off working in other departments, so I am diving into a few special projects that have crept up today.

I plan on getting up early tomorrow. If it is indeed only partly cloudy with no sign of rain, I will take my kayak down to the lake for a while, then I'll cut the grass before going to work. Supposedly it's going to be nice this weekend. I hope so because my yard and garden need my attention.

Everyone have a good evening.