Friday Fives

1. What four things do you need to do this weekend?

small errands mostly. Need to get the bedliner sprayed on the truck. Run downtown to pick up some Red Cross disaster stuff for our branch. Going to watch our horse race on Saturday afternoon, and my very close buddy Army is moving into town late Sunday night.

2. What were the last three things you purchased?

a tank of gas for the truck ($60 - diesel), some flowers for my wife (just kidding, sadly), a bunch of pills and special food for my wonderful and perfect but seriously aging lab Maury dog, and some groceries for dinner.

3. The name of your very first best friend?

His name was Brian Schumacher and we were the closest buddies in the whole wide world and when we were very young he was killed in a car accident. This is heavy stuff I don't ever talk about, and only my brother know about. even my wife doesn't know the story. Are you happy now?

4. What does it say in the signature line of your emails?

In the end I think of music as the saving grace for all humanity

- Henry Miller


5. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? If you already have them, what do they say?

in college, I did. They said (you guessed it) Lono! I still have them on the wall down here in the basement. Lono was a name I got from my college roommates because of my love of Hunter Thompson, and the fact that I named my cat Lono as well. The Lono reference is about a Thompson book circa 1981 called 'Curse of Lono' which is phenomenal. I believe it was the very last long form fiction book he ever did. The rest were books of letters, compendiums of columns, or re-pressings of old manuscripts (like Prince Jellyfish & the Rum Diaries).

This story troubles me

A 4 year old child for some reason cralwed into a duffle bag that was on the curb for garbage pick up. He was just playing, but no one saw him. A few minutes later the trash guys came and picked up the duffle bag and tossed it in the hopper/ compactor. As they drove off one of them heard the child scream and thankfully stopped the truck and the crusher and fished the boy out. Thank god he is ok.

However, this is what worries. It seems more likely the poor child would have died, but we are thankful he did not. However, had he died... imagine how the story would have played out. The child would have been reported missing about 30 minutes later. The neighborhood would be combed and an Amber alert would be issued. Neighbors would tell police of black men in the neighborhood recently who didn't look local. After a few days it would turn from search to recovery. The landfill would have been searched as a matter of course and the boy would have been found. The parents would immediately be blamed for child abuse and murder. The mother would say 'I was just washing the dishes and he was outside. Then, he was gone'. No one would believe her. When the story went national that the child was found badly bruised (from the crusher) and stuffed into a family duffle bag with blankets... well no one would possibly believe the parents.

Even if exonerated, the parents would live their lives under a cloud of suspicioun. The husband would forever have to wonder... even if it was just a 1% wonder, whether his wife could have done that. They would be the butt of jokes by Leno and co. Only the Ramsey's (who have since been totally exonerated) would believe them.

So, thank god that kid is alive and safe. I don't know why my mind thinks about these things, but it does.