There’s A Time And Place

“I’m not Mr. Debonair Suave. I’m just a regular boy who goofs around, pulls pranks, and makes jokes. That doesn’t sound very hot to me.”~ Jensen Ackles

This is probably the most disturbing story I have ever told on this blog. Mainly because it is probably the most disturbing story that I have read about in the past six months.

A woman called her husband to see if he was on his way home from work. The husband replied that he did not suspect that he would make it home for at least another hour. Disappointed because she wanted her husband home, she called him again ten minutes later, asking him to please hurry because something was going on in the house.

Twenty-five minutes later, the husband arrived home. Five minutes after he had been home it turned into a crime scene with one dead body, two injured.

Here’s the fully story of what I remembered reading:

The husband and wife were always playing pranks on one another. They had done that ever since they started dating. After a few years of marriage, the pranks continued. Some really good, others not so classic.

The wife’s desire to have her husband home was enough for her to call her husband back and pull another prank on him because she knew that it would definitely bring him back into her arms a lot sooner than an hour.

She had told him over the phone that there was a man in the house. Someone they both knew. It had been a man that had been hitting on her and flirting, even though the man knew that she was married. She told her husband that the man had come by the house and was intending on having sex with her while the husband was still an hour away from being home.

The husband believed his wife’s horrendous joke, and came home immediately. In the process he got a citation for speeding by the police. The husband however, retrieved a gun that was in the glove box of his vehicle and stormed into the house.

In a jealous rage, he shot the house up with bullet holes. Damaging and destroying a lot of their things. He stormed through the house and shot up the closet door in which he had suspected the “other man” to be hiding in. But there was nobody there.

When he couldn’t find the “other man”, the husband started to fight with his wife about her activities while he was at work. He wouldn’t listen to reason to her, so he pointed the gun at her and shot her.

After the rage had passed, the husband saw what he had done. He looked inside the closet only to find his five year old daughter laying on the floor. The bullets that he fired into the closet without aim, caused a shelf to come undone and all of the heavier contents landed on the child’s neck, breaking it.

It was the child’s special hiding place. Particularly when the husband and wife would argue and fight. She felt safe and secure inside of their bedroom closet. But it ended up not being safe at all in this case.

Then he went back and saw his wife laying there in a pool of blood and not moving. Remorse and guilt had set in, and so therefore he turned the gun on himself.

When the police arrived, the husband was dead. The wife and child would be taken to the hospital to be treated for their injuries. The child would survive her injuries and sent to live with her grandmother. The wife would become permanently disabled as a quadraplegic and unable to care for herself. When she was shot, the bullet hit her spine.

The family was torn to bits. All because the wife wanted her husband to be home sooner than later. She pulled a prank on her husband. Actually, told a lie to him in the hopes of getting him home faster. Initially one could argue that she was successful however the results of her words were harmful and deadly.

There is a time and there is a place for pranks and jokes. In this story, it was not the right time or place. It is something that is tragic and the prank should’ve never happened.

Pranks and jokes are always funny, at least when they do not happen to us. Usually when we become the victim of a joke, we don’t think it is necessarily funny when it happens. A lot of the times though we look back and think, “Okay that was kinda funny.”

If only we knew when those times were. If we think first before we react, then I believe that we can avoid having to deal with a similar situation like what happened with this family.

Yes, I know that a lot of jokes are funnier when it is done “on the spot”. But sometimes, these situations can get out of control and have the opposite reaction to what we were hoping, just to get a laugh.

Just the other day, I was a victim to a joke. It was one of those (what I call) “jumper” videos. Something that seems innocent at first, but then it suddenly something else JUMPS OUT on the screen, screaming. Yeah, I jumped so bad!!

I understand that they can be fun.

But to pull a prank on someone like that, just because you are wanting to change the fate of time? That is absolutely unnecessary.

So remember there is always a time and a place for everything. Have fun with your friends with jokes and pranks and what not, but be smart about it. If it is unsafe or at any point potentially dangerous- then you probably should pass on the prank and wait for the next opportunity to have fun at someone else’s expense.

 

 

 

Prostitution

“Working in Hollywood does give one a certain expertise in the field of prostitution.”~ Jane Fonda

According to New World Encyclopedia, prostitution is described as sexual intercourse in exchange for remuneration. The legal status of prostitution varies in different countries, from punishable by death to complete legality. Prostitution has often been described as “the world’s oldest profession,” and there is evidence of prostitution occurring throughout history in all societies.

Pornography actors also could be included in this definition. However, they are paid for sex by the producers of the pornography and prostitutes are being paid for sex by their clients.

Here in the United States, it is commonly illegal throughout many of the states, with two states being the exception where it is legal. Can you guess which two? Nevada is one, yes. That was a no brainer!

The other state in which prostitution is legal, is Rhode Island. However, it is illegal to solicit on the streets and to own or run a brothel.

I was privy to some information yesterday. And I thought it was time for a little “exposure” if you will.

If you take what you know of prostitution based on television and movies, you would be way off. Prostitutes in today’s society are not always in high heels, short skirts, and gawdy amounts of make-up on painted on their faces.

By what was defined and described by New World Encyclopedia, there is a resident here who would actually fit the definition.

A woman in her mid-50’s has for a long time now, kept the company of strange and unfamiliar men in her apartment. Day and night these men are coming in to her apartment, staying for unholy amounts of time within her walls.

She has some kind of disability. My guess is that it is a mental disability. But it is also common knowledge that she is a former drug abuser and currently an alcoholic. 

She takes a variety of medicines and drugs for her psychosis, but then the problem is that she drinks on top of it. She’s never seen outside of her home until well after 3:00 PM. Mainly because she is doing her activities throughout the night and into the late morning hours, gets drunk, takes her medication and is nearly in a coma when she sleeps until mid-afternoon because she mixed alcohol with her prescription medicines. Most of us who live here usually go into complete shock if we see her out and about before the sun is going down.

Her neighbors are actually witnesses to her situation as they can hear her sexual activities through the walls.

At some point, she had found out that she had a communicable disease which was probably given to her through sex. The details of which are totally disgusting and yet she was telling many people about it. Mainly, an organization that helps women. They decided to help her out in her situation, and she screwed them all over in the end.

Most of us who had compassion and concern thought that she might stop and turn her life around and possibly stop drinking. But in fact, her situation went in the totally opposite direction because things got worse.

The neighbors that live next to her haven’t really “slept” in a long time. Or they resorted to sleeping in their living rooms because of the noise.

There is nothing in the apartment lease agreement about having sex in your own home, and there is nothing illegal about it either. Neither is there anything illegal about drinking in your own home. So there really isn’t anything that can be done about what she is doing. Once she is outside though, is a totally different story. And she is mentally capable of understanding the consequences of her actions in public.

So it is a struggle for her neighbors to actually gain that peaceful environment. As well as the other residents around here as she has gone to many people (myself included) and asked for $5, $10, even $20. The money lending came to an abrupt end when just three other residents realized that she was not using the money for the excuse she had given when she asked for the loan, but rather for beer and wine. When payday comes for everyone, it is no secret that she is off to the corner gas station to pick up some beer, and will continue to do so throughout the day, for several days, until her money is gone.

That just happens to be the very sad and unfortunate life of an alcoholic.

But once the others stopped giving her money, she resorted to prostitution. She became friends with another prostitute that always can be seen in the neighborhood here most Fridays, and usually towards the beginning of the month when many people who are receiving disability checks have been paid.

Now this woman does it on her own. Many men who are seen on the property have been let on to the property by her. They often are spotted with grocery bags containing several six packs of beer. And they leave empty handed. With the reports of the sex noises coming through the walls, its safe to say that she is exchanging her body for alcohol. Thus, a “prostitute”.

What scares the rest of us that live here is that once these people are on the property, they can go anywhere and do anything. And it really is a dangerous situation because people could be in complete danger for their lives because this woman, she honestly does not know who she is letting in. When she is done with her “company”, she never walks them off the property to make sure that they have left. For all she knows, they have left but the possibility is that they could be wandering around, looking for things to steal.

Instead, she stays inside of her apartment because she doesn’t want the other people to know what it is she is doing. But believe me, there’s nobody that lives here that doesn’t already know about it!

So then the information that I had received just the other day was actually no surprise to me at all. This woman has failed to pay her rent for the month of October and she knows it.

She thought that she could get away with it by putting in writing that she is “under financial hardship” because she had given some money to her sister to help pay for some medical expenses because her sister is actually quite ill.

I saw the letter– and I probably should not have.

And then in private conversation, when I brought up the subject of this woman’s “financial hardship”, I was to understand that she was actually presented to her face the letter of her eviction notice. But she was given until Monday, the 17th of October to have her rent paid OR tell staff when she would have the money for her rent, and that had to be by the end of next week, or she would receive the eviction notice and ultimately be removed.

Many people who receive eviction notices commonly appeal it and take it to court. A majority of them lose! But drinking and having sex is again- not illegal. Failure to pay rent, IS a violation of the lease agreement.

So many residents here, especially those who live near or next to her, have complained about the noises that go on in the middle of the night, but there really isn’t a lot that can be done about it, outside of calling the police. And usually by the time they show up, the noises have stopped.

Life in the big city.

Now, this woman has another two days to have that rent paid. Within a couple of hours of being threatened by this possible eviction, the activity of strangers on the property exploded!!! Many men have been spotted by other residents to be going in and out of her home for most of the day yesterday. It is with regret that we believe the money will be collected and she will have her rent money on Monday morning and life as we know it will continue.

In my own opinion, this woman does need a lot of help. It wouldn’t make me blink any more or any less if she was to end up in jail. Perhaps a long stint in jail would actually get her to sober up and she could possibly leave jail without the crutch of her alcohol dependency. But my opinion also agrees with the others that the men that she allows on to property are a serious risk and danger. I believe that I am fortunate enough that I do not live that close to her in proximity. But since this is a gated community, its close enough. Especially if these men have no clue how to exit the property after the office is closed and their “visit” is over simply because she has no regard for these men once they exit her front door.

There’s only a few of us who know about her failure to pay rent this month. I was surprised to hear that story come back to me by an unlikely resident. Nobody says it, but they all hope that she fails to pay it. And yet with the reports still being e-mailed to me and told to others about who and how many men have been on the property since that threat of eviction, kind of tells us that she’s gonna be living with us a little while longer. Nobody actually wishes her harm. They all just want her to STOP doing what she is doing because it is so dangerous. Not only for others, but for herself as well.

So much for complaining about boring weekends!!!

Wheelchair Cemetary

Today, I must say farewell to my trusty friend. It truly was my companion. It took me wherever I wanted to go. I had some good times with it. But now its time to carry on without it.

My wheelchair broke this afternoon. Fortunately I was not in it when it decided to give up the ghost. It was in the process of being loaded into the back of a truck when it spun its last revolution.

It suddenly had become wobbly and so when it was set back down on the ground, parts of it had come undone and the X-frame was no longer in its capable position. Rather though one of the bars came right through the bottom of the wheelchair.

We gathered that I definitely would have fallen at the time of its collapse, and it probably would have done some very serious physical damage to my body as I sank with gravity to the ground. Some way, some how, I would have been impaled. I am just thankful that I was already inside of the truck when it happened. So, no impaling today. Vlad Țepeș must be so disappointed in his grave.

I actually laughed when I saw it in its warped state. I didn’t panic because I knew I had other older wheelchairs stored away, but after a few hours of sitting in the secondary chair, its not so funny anymore to me.

Now I am sitting in a wheelchair where the front right wheel shakes like that same old grocery cart you always seem to find at Wal-Mart. It never stops shaking!!

The one that bit the dust was in fact a newer chair. I’ve barely had it for a year, maybe a year and a half. Now its only good for spare parts. It is true what they say, “Don’t know what you got, until its gone.”

I think that it sucks because I have to find one of the older chairs now and try to get used to them and adapt to how they work. The one I am sitting in at the moment really hurts my poor little butt!

So sad today could have been. But I am fine and in good health. No injuries or anything like that.

Now if only the apartment manager will loan me a shovel so I can bury the one that died today in the yard.