Tvindy

Random Tidbits

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. For the past few weeks I've been experiencing some fairly severe back pain, and while my disk herniation nine years ago has taught me to be very accepting of chronic pain, I'm still not able to be very productive while experiencing it. Fortunately, my chiropractor expects that I'll make a full recovery. (He's about 80% sure.) In the meantime, here are a few unrelated tidbits to fill some space:

• I just finished reading Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson (one of my favorite authors). The notable thing about this book is that one of the characters is absurdly similar to Snowball's X. The parallels just go on and on. I laughed and laughed as I read his scenes, many of which could have been lifted directly from Snowball's blog. (Except, of course, she doesn't work in a secure government facility dedicated to studying an extraterrestrial in its native habitat.)
• Today I had what I refer to as a three-hour salad. I call it that, because it's so huge that that is the minimum amount of time it takes to consume it. (I go off my super low-fat diet every ten days or so.) Considering it filled a large mixing bowl, it was quite an ordeal, but I got through it okay.
• Today is Mardi Gras in Muncie (and some other places, no doubt). Apparently it's really big. There should be about 11,000 people there, and it's only a few blocks away from my house. I find it strange I haven't yet heard so much as a peep coming from that direction. Local churchgoers want to shut it down. I'll be heading over there is a few hours to do my part. If even a single booby is released in my vicinity, I will rush over and cover it with my hands to protect people from the offensive sight.

Spring is Here!

I still can't get over the mild winters here in Eugene. Today was t-shirt weather, and even in a t-shirt, I was still hot. So far, no snow has fallen in Eugene this winter. The only downside to all this nice weather is the coming pollen, which will soon make me miserable.

Muncie, on the other hand, is a different story.

Night & Day

Last night when all the snow was falling, I made my usual late night trek through the alley to my home. It was an unusual night. Despite it being just a little after 2:30 in the morning on a cloudy night in the dead of winter, the city was shrouded in an eerie glow. I took a lot of pictures (without the flash), and perhaps I will post more of them another day. For now, check out the photo of my backyard at 2:41 am, and compare it to the one I took this afternoon at 1:29 pm.

Literacy in Muncie

The Poopy Police

I have a strong dislike for the police, especially the ones here in Muncie. Ever since I bought my house and moved into this neighborhood, I've had a number of annoying incidents with them, some of which I've decided to share with you.

The first happened not long after I moved in. As most of you know from reading this, I am very nocturnal. It was three in the morning or thereabouts, and I went downstairs to figure out how I wanted to arrange my furniture, since I hadn't yet finished moving in. So there I was standing in the living room, making a mental list of what to buy and where to place it. I didn't even have lamps yet, so the room was unlit. Suddenly and without warning, the room was bathed in bright red flashing light. A police car had silently pulled up next to my house with its headlights turned off. No doubt, the officer knew that the house had been vacant for several months and was not aware someone had moved in. He probably saw me moving around inside and thought I was a prowler. I'm sure he expected he could give me a good scare and flush me out of the house with his lights. Well, he definitely did give me a scare. I mean, here it was three in the morning, and I'm at home all alone in a still unfamiliar neighborhood without a phone yet installed. I ran into the next room to get away from the lights. The poopy policeman stayed around for a few minutes and then seemingly drove away. But actually he just went around the block and tried the same trick again. He pulled up without his headlights on and then switched on his flashers again. Just what is a person supposed to do in such a situation? I sure as hell wasn't going to go outside and find out what he wanted. That would be an almost surefire way of getting shot. Finally I turned on my porchlight to show that I lived there and was not hiding from him. Still he would not leave. Finally I just went upstairs to bed, leaving the policeman to amuse himself with his own silly antics. The next morning (Well, probably I woke up in the afternoon.), he was gone. Welcome to the neighborhood.

Then there was another incident. I was out jogging in the early morning hours as I am wont to do. My normal routine has been to start the jog at about 3:30 am, so I don't have to contend with much traffic or other joggers, and I can see the sun come up. One route I often took went along a river. Eventually the paved trail peters out, and I am forced to run on the grass, but I try to stay on the pavement as long as possible. Unfortunately, a policecar started parking on the trail, so I had to veer off onto the grass about a quarter mile sooner than normal. This kept happening and was getting on my nerves. One day there were two cars side-by-side. To hell with it, I decided. I stayed on the pavement and ran right next to the car on the left, passing close enough to touch the car. I kept my eye on the driver's side window in case the officer went for a gun and I had to duck. I was astonished to see very clearly that he was completely asleep. I never got a look at the driver of the second car, but presumably he was also there to sleep. Once again, I faced the question of what to do in such a situation. I toyed with the idea of pounding on the window to wake up the officer but thought better of it. I also considered memorizing their license plate numbers and noting the time and then reporting them. But even if I remained anonymous, the officers could still potentially figure out who it was by the fact that no one else in Muncie in their right mind would go jogging in the park at that ungodly hour. They would then lay in wait for me one morning and shoot me as I went by. So of course I did nothing. Interestingly, that was the last time I ever saw a police car in that area, so perhaps driver number two had seen me seeing his buddy in drooling slumber. Months later I heard that certain police officers had been reprimanded for sleeping on the job. Idiots.

Yet another annoying 3 am incident occurred more recently, this summer in fact. My parents live just two and a half blocks away from me, and since it would be expensive to get broadband re-installed in my house and then disconnected just three months later, I do all my internet stuff at their house and then walk back home at about three in the morning through a couple of long dark alleys, which is not only the shortest route, but I am convinced that it is also safer than taking the streets. So there I was coming out of an alley, getting ready to cross the street and enter the continuation of the alley on the other side. I looked both ways and stopped when I saw a car coming, which happened to be a police car. I waited for it to pass, but it kept slowing down. Finally it came to a complete stop on the other side of the street. But it didn't exactly drive up and then stop; it took as long as possible going slower and slower, so it was in motion for the longest possible amount of time. During all this, I'm standing there waiting for it to finish passing, so I can cross. But of course it doesn't pass. It just sits there. And I just stand there, because I sure as hell am not going to jaywalk in front of a police car. So this goes on for awhile, and then a car comes by and stops because there is a stopped police car in front of it, and the driver sure as hell wasn't going to try to drive around a police car stopped in the middle of the road for no apparent reason at three in the morning. Finally the officer pulled up a bit and over to let the car pass. I crossed the street with the police car still sitting there watching me, but at least I could pass behind it rather than in front.

Last night, the incident I just related started to play out again just as before. I reached the street and stopped when I saw a car coming. Then I noticed that it was a police car that was gradually slowing down. Well, there was no way in hell I was going to go through that all over again, so I crossed the street right there and then directly in front of a moving police car. As I entered the continuation of the alley, I heard the car come to a stop behind me, and a very vicious-sounding police dog started barking at me. I never turned around to look at it, but from the volume and timbre, I could tell that the dog had its head out an open window. And since the barking occurred suddenly and not until that point, I can only conclude that the officer had somehow commanded or cued the dog to do that. I also remembered at that point that there had been a dog in the previous incident as well, but I had forgotten all about it, since it was so bizarre. I guess this is common police procedure here in Muncie. Go around stopping people in the middle of the night and threatening them with vicious dogs. And all I was doing was walking two and a half blocks to my house,so I could go to bed. FUCKTARDS!

Wall Art

Back when I was in Muncie and in shape, I would often run along a jogging trail known as the Cardinal Greenway. At one point along the route, there is a mural decorated with children's paintings of animals. This was one of my favorites:

That cow has really pronounced kneecaps! There is also this:

I'm pretty sure the poop chunk is a later addition by another artist, but it definitely adds something to the oeuvre.

Weird Clouds

I'm still posting photos from Indiana. Here is a really weird cloud formation outside the Muncie Mall.

Muncie Reflection

Here is a shot taken in downtown Muncie, Indiana.

Halloween Photos

I went around my neighborhood in Muncie, Indiana on Halloween morning taking pictures of all the decorated houses. You can see the photos in my Halloween Gallery.

Halloween 2003

I just finished handing out candy to this year's trick-or-treaters. It's sad to see how much Halloween has declined over the years. There are proportionately far fewer trick-or-treaters and houses handing out candy than when I was a child. Almost no children were out without a parent, and most of them needed to be instructed before arriving at each house how to ask for candy. I understand that forgetting to say "thank you" has always been commonplace (and perfectly understandable), but nowadays half the kids dont even know to say "trick-or-treat". And it's not out of rudeness; they just show up at the door and have no idea what to say. A few improvise and say "Happy Halloween." It's as if the whole tradition of Halloween is no longer a part of the culture for today's children. It only continues because the parents push their kids into it.

One thing that was an improvement this year was that there were no scary or rude adults. It's not unusual in my neighborhood for an occasional older adult to show up at my door on Halloween trick-or-treating without a costume. I have no problem with that. I'm certainly not going to withhold candy from someone just because of their age or lack of costume. Besides, my impression is that some of them are very poor and do it out of hunger or a lack of anything else to do. What disturbs me are the ones who are greedy and don't even bother thanking me and the ones who don't even smile and look like they are thinking about robbing me.

Happy Halloween!