Wednesday, August 19, 2009

"Please Mr. Postman...................................."

Good Morning;

Okay, so I lied, the first post yesterday was the only post....a follower of the U.S. Postal Service creed/motto I'm NOT! Extreme heat, violent thunderstorms, sleet, snow, etc., etc.,...and my overly large, and well padded butt is staying inside, out of the weather if at all possible and keeping cool, dry, or warm, as applicable!

I was going to take Rachel out yesterday, and I was/am able to because some one who wishes to remain anonymous gave me $20.00 on Monday, saying "Let me buy you dinner tonight.", I asked if he would mind if I used it to take my daughter out, and he said, "Go for it"..(or words to that effect.....lol). But.....it was just too damned hot to be standing outside waiting on buses and walking around, and the 'ex' did/does not have the car this week. I talked to her on the phone, (and the little stinker 'graciously' allowed me to speak with her, saying, "Hi DaveyDaddy please hurry up I'm watching 'Little Bear' I Love You Bye" all in one breath), and told her we'd go out when the heat subsided a bit. when i got her back on the phone, she told me she had a new sprinkler for the hose and had been playing in it while watering her garden. Adaptable, that she is...........lol.


Now to rewind a bit, Sunday I had waited too long to go out to the corner and missed the 'good' crowd, and there were also 2 other people who showed up after I did, a white guy in his late 20's,your basic junkie, with a sign who crossed North Ave. and stood on the opposite corner,which is usually SOP courtesy wise, and this black guy in his middle 30s, with obvious 'dual diagnosis' issues, who kept shouting out parts of his conversation with "Abraham"...(the biblical patriarch, not the 16th President of the USA)...interspersed with comments indicating his desire for another bag of 'ready'...(that is 'crack' for the non-street savvy), who was walking up and down among the stopped, (most of the time), traffic on the I-83 ramp, right in front of me, and going up to motorists car windows and asking for money. This is the type of Aggressive Panhandling that gets EVERYONE in the area arrested! I had been out about an hour and had just made the decision to leave anyway due to the heat and the sparseness of the traffic when the white guy comes up to me and asks to let him have the corner in the median where I was standing, telling me that 'fair is fair' and that he had been doing pretty good on the other corner, and that we should switch. Well, if he had been doing good ...why did he want to swap places??? I avoid confrontation whenever possible, so, since I was leaving anyway, I kept my mouth shut to the obvious contradictions in his argument. The crazy guy started babbling at him as I was leaving, and I think, but I would not swear to it, that as I went down the stairs to the Light Rail, to get out of the area as quickly as I could, 3 cop cars were pulling up to the intersection I just left. Some people have to learn that 'You don't dirty your own nest' as the adage goes.

I spent the next 2 and 1/2 hours getting to Owings Mills Metro Station, (normally a 45 minutes maximum trip), due to single tracking and only 2 car trains being run.

{Public Service Announcement}
There is a massive maintenance program in progress every weekend this summer with crowded cars and long delays and no set schedules in use on the METRO.

Expect short tempers, long waits, packed cars, and loud stupid people without a clue of what and why complaining about and cursing the MTA, (The same people who bitch and moan about the problems encountered if the maintenance is not performed), and who, while bitterly denouncing the drivers/operators, (who have no control over any of this), and blaming them for missed connections and late arrivals at jobs etc., have not read the signboards prominently displayed at each and every station for the past 3 or more months informing all and sundry of the current and future probability of slowness, stoppages, delays, and schedule disruptions. To help pass the time it is suggested that you bring reading material, or plan to amuse yourself by listening to all the 'conspiracy theories' being espoused and how the MTA, City, State, and Feds are personally targeting individual riders.
Please be patient, and enjoy the ride.......Thank You.


I told you of my unexpected and greatly appreciated encounter with Ted, I then sat outside and read and did crosswords after the coffee shop closed, then caught the bus down to the 'shed' around 11:00 pm. when it had cooled down to 80 degrees outside. I aired out the shed as much as possible by swinging the door as a fan and went to sleep, to be promptly woken up by the construction workers. After 6:00 am. or so they cleared out and I fell back asleep until the heat woke me around 10:30 am.


So that brings us to Monday, I went down to Monkee's very early, came back and I hit the Giant, then the coffee shop, stayed out of the heat and read and watched a movie, saw "RICH"!!!!, who....ooops, many apologies, I called "RALPH" a few posts back...hey at least I got the first letter right........lol. After closing, Janis stopped by for some conversation, and I must apologize again for being such poor company....I kept yawning and zoning out....due to exhaustion, between the enervating heat and the loud, lewd, crude, and rude bellowings of the workers outside my sleeping spot, I have not gotten a good, solid, uninterrupted REM sleep in a while; also I need a shower pretty seriously again, it has been 'sticky' out, and even though I do a fair job of bathing in a sink, it's not like a good, hard shower spray, or a long soak in the ocean.
Well, it's somewhat convoluted, but we are now up to date.
Today I hope..Want..NEED!! to bathe somewhere..(SOON), and if I can do so early enough I want to go out with Rachel...I have to find out how hot it is...I've been in here a while....Right now, I am going to go get some more coffee,(the Giant had 16 oz. or 20 oz. cups today......whooo hooo!!), and eat breakfast/lunch, and read the paper, and pray someone reads this before they come to the Starbucks....and offers me shower facilities...........
.............later..................Dave

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