Tuesday's Fortune: 31 July 2012

MEAL:  1 order (8) Crab Rangoon + 1 small order Sweet & Sour Chicken = $8.44 + $1.56 tip

Hotcha!  Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 244

The Kinks:  "Do You Remember Walter?"  [mp3]

I had just turned onto Wright Street over by MATC, so I was only about half a mile from home.  It was quarter after six, and I was looking forward to watching the Olympics opening ceremony.  I had a bag full of groceries that included a pound of Ranier cherries and a healthy wedge of Double Gloucester, my favorite cheese.  The cheese they roll down a big hill in Gloucester every year, and dozens die. 

....

I was behind a small black car that was behind a dude on a motorcycle, and I had noticed as he made the turn before me, that his bike was jerking a bit, as if the guy had little experience and was popping the clutch too fast whilst not giving it enough gas. 

You know. 

Not long after I had successfully navigated the turn myself, I see his front wheel start to violently wobble, and then, quite suddenly, the front tire jerks to the left and the bike and rider go down fast and hard.

The small black car stops immediately behind him, and I creep around the whole scene and park soon after.

The dude is able to get himself out from under the bike, which can be difficult as his ride probably weighed about 500 pounds, but when he attempts to stand up, his legs crumple and he goes down hard again, rolling around on the asphalt and now wildly trying to peel off his helmet.

By the time I reach him, it's apparent that his left knee is fucked up.  The kneecap is not where it should be, and his leg was bent in an unsettling position.  His bike, meanwhile, is leaking oil like a mofo, and the front brake assembly is smoking rather impressively.  His front brakes had locked up, simple as that.

It's a busy intersection, due to MATC and the fairly large apartment complex facing this street and the accident, so I'm only one of about 15 people that seemingly appear out of nowhere in a matter of seconds.  A middle-aged woman who identified herself as a registered nurse quickly took control of the situation, compelling me and another guy to fireman carry the guy over to the grassy curbside as she keeps his knee immobilized. 

Done and done.

She's taking his pulse, and says he's going into shock, information that a young MATC coed is relaying to the 911 operator via a very gaudy cellphone.  Others are taking pictures and video with their phones.

The first cop is there within a minute, I shit you not.  Perhaps more impressively, a firetruck with a paramedic is there about two minutes later.

The dude was fairly coherent, but definitely in pain.  He would laugh softly from time to time, and somehow that seemed like an appropriate thing to do when suffering a dislocated knee.  The whole thing made me a bit nauseous, so I lit a cigarette and went to take a look at the bike, waiting to give my statement to the officer, which I eventually did.

I wished the fucked-up dude good luck, and drove the last few blocks to my house.  The broadcast of the opening ceremony was well underway on NBC by the time I got home.

I don't really have anything to say about the ceremony at the moment, although I kept thinking that if I had produced it, I might have used nothing but Kinks tunes for the "soundtrack".

Hotcha!  Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 24 July 2012

MEAL:  2 Roast Pork Egg Rolls + 1 small order Pork Lo Mein = $7.05 + 95¢ tip

Hotcha!  Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 243

John Coltrane:  A Love Supreme:  "Psalm"  [mp3]

Earlier today a rather fucked-up individual killed 12 people in a movie theater in Colorado.  We all know this.  We all know it could have been much worse.  I'm trying to avoid knowing any more than that, although it's an impossible task here on the internet.   The chittering of millions, mostly anonymous.  The squawking of pundits we can recognize, if not name. 

So much chittering and squawking back and forth, trying to weave some sort of reason for this latest atrocity, and it's all the usual suspects - lax gun laws, an inadequate mental health system and poor insurance coverage for the mentally ill, video games, a nation that is increasingly apathetic or antagonistic towards God and our saviour the lord Jesus Christ, and some strain of popular music, usually Fucking Metal.  It might also be the president's fault.

I'm sure all these reasons, and many more, somehow contributed to the WHY? of it all, but in the end I'm content to simply believe the killer, James Holmes, broke.  I mean, our brains are such complicated, delicate things, capable of imbalance and unreason, and even when we are relatively rational, we must still somehow make sense of a world that is cold and cruel and often nonsensical, as it always has been.

Why did James Holmes do what he did?  Because there are several billion people on this planet, and some of us are simply defective.  Imbalanced.  Unreasonable.  Fucked up. 

And have easy access to guns.

Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 17 July 2012

MEAL:  1 order (8) Crab Rangoon + 1 order (8) Steamed Dumplings = $8.74 + $1.26 tip

Hotcha!  Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 10 July 2012

MEAL:  2 Vegetable Spring Rolls + 1 small order Sweet & Sour Chicken = $7.05 + 95¢ tip

Hotcha!  Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 242

DIIV:  Oshin:  "Air Conditioning"  [mp3]

Sweet holy fuck it has been hot around here the last couple of weeks.  Every day this week the temperature has topped 100 degrees, with two or three of those days hitting 105 or higher to say nothing of the heat index which typically makes it feel another 5 to 10 degrees hotter.

It's been hot just about everywhere around the country, but this is Wisconsin for fucking sake!  Six months from now the temperatures could easily be 100 degrees colder than right now.  I'd like to see Miami or Houston deal with sub-freezing temperatures this Christmas.  I'd like to see the fine folks of Phoenix shoveling snow just once.  Just once, so they can fully appreciate the hellish absurdity of living in a climate that has a 100+ differential in temperature.

It's just not fair, I tells ya, but I suppose air-conditioning is the great equalizer. 

I love you, Frigidaire!

I love you too, DIIV.  Oshin is an awesome album.

Stay cool, everyone.  Global warming aside, it can't stay this hellish forever.

Hotcha!  Hank

Tuesday's Fortune: 03 July 2012

MEAL:  12 Roast Pork Egg Rolls = $13.20 + 80¢ tip

Hotcha!  Hank