Blinded By Rent

“Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.”~ Kinky Friedman

Welcome to April!

And for those of you who are keeping track: 25% of the year has now gone by.

As it is for so many of us, this week is rent week. A week that we all feel so much good fuzzy feelings for! Am I right? No?!?? Oh well. It can be a chore and a hassle but we do it because we want to keep having a place to live.

This morning as I was going to grab my coffee, I remembered that I needed to grab the money order that I had for my own rent.

Well, April in Texas is also stormy season. A cold front blew in so it was a bit chilly outside. Very windy too!

I picked up the money order and headed back outside. But the wind nearly pulled the money order out of my hand. I do have pockets, but they aren’t that deep and I didn’t feel secure enough with all this wind that it would stay in there. I did the next best thing that I could think of.

I stuck the money order in between my teeth and bit down and proceeded to move forward.

The moment I turned the corner at top speed and was facing a northern direction, that crazy wind got in the way.

As I was accelerating in speed because I was going down a hill, the wind got stronger and flipped that flimsy piece of paper upwards and back into my face. The width of the paper and its placement between my teeth literally caused a blind spot.

Before I knew it, the wheelchair had turned off of the sidewalk and I went tumbling down the rest of the hill, head over heels, over and over and over again. The money order never coming out of my mouth.

It took quite a while for the empty wheelchair to catch up to me. And I climbed back in. All the while gritting down on the money order so it would not fly away in the wind.

I am fine though. I didn’t seriously hurt myself. I wasn’t bleeding or anything like that. I had the sense to roll with the roll so to speak.

But I have always said that rent was going to kill me one day. It came a little bit closer today than before!!!

Everyone enjoy a laugh from the story. Happy April to everyone!!!!!!!

Winter Warfare

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.”~ Anton Chekhov

Welcome to 2018, everyone!

It is mid-January, which means just a few days until my next birthday. And also time for a new blog post. Since there were none in December.

If you have been keeping up with recent weather events, you’ll know that a majority of the United States of America is pretty darn cold right now. Including right here in Austin!!

As a matter of fact, the entire city has been shut down. Monday was a federal holiday and Tuesday’s weather got really cold. A TRUE winter time here in Austin. It was going to be a shorter week, but due to the fact that temperatures were way below zero, and there was the threat of freezing rain/sleet/ice/snow, Austin just basically said “Screw it! We’re closed.”

Now it is Wednesday. Here at the SGC, we’ve not had much in the way of events since Thursday because staff chickened out and left early last Friday. But today, Wednesday the 17th, staff returned. The doors were open.

And glory glory hallelujah…. for most of us, that meant free hot coffee and something to kill the monotony!! I took advantage of it because I have been suffering cabin fever really bad.

But the temperatures are below 20°F/-6°C this morning with the promise of getting up above freezing sometime this afternoon.

Here I was this morning though, triple layers up top and single layer below. And suddenly I realized I am not the brightest bulb. But I got to the coffee before what I thought would be a mad scramble.

The usual “suspects” were already in the building. A meeting of the slow minds, if you will. Which is nothing against them, it is what it is.

As I sat there enjoying the warm cup of life, another woman walked in screaming at the top of her lungs, inquiring if anyone in the room had the flu.

To me that didn’t make sense. These are mostly elderly people. What in the world would make her think that anyone would be out of their homes if they were stricken with the flu? How many of them would honestly have the strength to get out of their homes if they were sick to begin with??

But there she was, insisting on answers in the most obnoxious way. Hanging around the door way with her mask on her face.

When nobody proclaimed to be ill, she removed the mask and made her way to the nearest available chair to sit in.

Minutes later she got up and left, only to return to start shouting again. This time she inquired about who was doing their laundry. And one of the slower neighbors said that he had something going on.

She cried out, “It’s done!”

The gentleman thanked her for her notice and went back to his conversation and coffee.

This pissed off the woman.

She cried out again, “Go get it so I can put my things in the machine.”

To which he responded with “I’ll get it here in a minute.”

And that was not good enough for her. He had already acknowledged what she had said to him. But like I said, he’s a bit slow. So it wasn’t like he was going to leap up from where he was sitting and skip merrily into the laundry room to change his clothes from the washer to the dryer. He just was in no hurry at all. And she was!

His lacking response caused the fight bell to ring as she literally shouted and screamed at him. “I need that machine NOW!!”

She was met with the same response of acknowledgement and the promise to get the progression moving “…in a minute.”

There was an eerie silence. I looked up and found her face turning a deep red.

She then left once more to go back into the laundry room, and she mumbled under her breath (loud enough for me to hear) that she was just going to do it FOR him. And that meant removing his clothes and discarding them elsewhere to where they were out of her way. And this was also going to be mean that she was not going to be all that concerned with where she put them, as long as they were free and clear of the washing machine that she wanted to use.

But her own physical capabilities are extremely limited due to her morbid obesity. So she realized that she wouldn’t have the stamina to go through with it.

She did the next best thing: Tattled on the guy with the one staff member present.

Staff came into the room to make a general “announcement” that when laundry machines are finished working that residents need to take care of it, so that the machines are open and available for other residents to use. It was also said that the apartment manager would be informed of this altercation when he arrived.

I think that was the appropriate response from staff.

The woman walked out into the hallway with an evil smirk on her face, realizing that she got her way. And the man who was slow in all senses of the word, attempted his best to get up from his chair so that he could go switch his laundry from washer to dryer. It did in fact, take him quite some time to get up to his feet and move towards the door. And she just couldn’t stand it any more.

She verbally attacked as he limped by her. And from what I think, she lost the upper hand when she followed him outside, berating him every slow, limping step of the way.

I was on my way out the door myself after finishing my cup of coffee and what happened next hasn’t happened since the great  Strawberry Milk Fight of 2011.

Oh Yes Indeed!!!

To put it plainly, he had enough of her shit talking and he retaliated with a physical vengeance. And due to her own physical shortcomings, she didn’t have a chance.

The battle was swift. And it left her retreating back inside as he continued his way to the laundry room to switch his laundry. The last words I heard was him in frustration as he walked into the laundry room grumbling, “Damn Fucking Bitch!”

Yeah, don’t let the fact that the elderly are cute fool you at all. Especially not around here.

Murder From Down Under: Crocodile Edition

“Once people come to Australia, they join the team.”~ Tony Abbott

Once in a while you come across something so crazy, so bizarre, that you just cannot help yourself but to look into the situation further on your own.

So it is with the murders of Australian hookers, Phuangsri Kroksamrang, 58, and Somjai Insamnan, 27 in or near the town of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

What makes the murders of these two women so unique was the fact that they were found in crocodile infested waters. More specifically, near a tourist place for people in public to observe the crocodiles.

They were bound by their hands and feet and tethered to car batteries and thrown into the river.

It took authorities a long time to come up with those who were guilty of the crime as many theories has been explored. Including a theory that the prostitutes had been murdered by members of the motorcycle gang, the Hell’s Angels.

The gang took a lot of heat from the authorities until the truth came up.

But soon the mystery would be solved.

These two women were murdered callously in order to satisfy a debt.

It is believed by Australian authorities that these women were kept captive for at least 18 to 30 hours before they were eventually killed.

Senseless and tragic.

The murderers were hopeful and anticipating that the crocodiles in the water would consume their bodies and leave little to no evidence of the crime of murder. But the creatures barely touched the corpses, and several hours after they were dumped, they were found floating in the river near a high tourist traffic area of the banks of the river on the 1st of March 2004. 

Ben William McLean and Phu Ngoc Trinh,  both 18 years of age at the time were eventually arrested.

Both initially pled not guilty in court.

After deliberation, the two were found guilty of the murders, and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 25 years. It is scary to think that they’ve already served nearly half of that before even thinking about being considered for parole.

Justice Mildred, who tried the case, stated that there was no evidence that the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang had any involvement, and noted that both suspects had changed their stories many times during the case’s progress, hence their statements could not be deemed to be reliable. So basically stupid actions got them caught. They were so confident that they had gotten away with murder.

I only wished that I could have found more information on this case. If you have any thing more you feel you can add, do not hesitate to contact me.

This subject matter came up during one of the most unusual of ways, during a live chat with Australian YouTuber, “SpookyAstronauts.”Content on that channel deals with horror films and horror related stories. Plain and simple. She does a wonderful job and keeps everyone up to date and informed on what is going on in the horror film genre. If that is your kind of thing, then I suggest subscribing to her channel and following her on social media.

https://www.youtube.com/user/spookyastronauts

Head

“Everyone has highs and lows that they have to learn from, but every morning I start off with a good head on my shoulders, saying to myself, ‘It’s going to be a good day!’.”~ Lindsay LohanIf I did not write this down, it would be a complete tragedy and total loss to mankind.

Even though I cannot give specific details, I can give you at least the story which is too good to keep to oneself. I’ll have to change the names. Not for their safety, but to keep my ass from getting sued. Ready? Here we go.

Not that long ago, I was laying in a hotel bed at night just watching television, thinking to myself that I should probably go to sleep because the following morning, I had to get up early and knew that I would be working hard all day long.

The moment that I had the room dark with all the lights turned off, there was a knock on my door.

When I opened the door, they asked for me by name. I said that’s who I was.

It was a woman. More specifically, a prostitute. Hookers aren’t my thing, so I decided to turn her away. But she insisted that either she come into my room or she get paid. She told me that “Mark” had called for her to come to my room, and she was not going any where until something happened. Either her work or her getting paid.

“Mark” had a room two floors above, and I tried to tell her that it was “Mark” that called so she should attempt to get her money from him. But she was insisting.

I slammed the door in her face. But she kept knocking. I’ve never met a more persistent prostitute in all of my life!

So I gave her the money that I had made working for the week to get her out of the hotel and told her to get a cab ride home.

“Mark” was going to get it. I am in charge of “Mark”, so he was screwed.

But I double checked with those that are in charge of me, and to be honest, they do not like “Mark” and they wished that they could find a reason to fire “Mark.”

A small group of people went on a horse riding tour. One of which, took a long a shovel.

Don’t get ahead of me… keep reading!

But in fact, this group of people did gather the manure from the horses, and picked up more and placed it all inside of a plastic bag.

Here’s where it gets hilarious………

I know some people who have worked in the industry with make-up and the like. They took this head full of horse shit and sculpted it into the shape of a head. And then they painted it and made it look like a person’s head. Complete with facial features and everything. The only thing missing were ears for whatever reason.

They put this head and placed it into “Mark’s” luggage.

At the airport, there was an elderly man working. This guy was probably really close to retirement when he began sniffing into the air. Something was wrong. But he couldn’t figure out what.

So he had “Mark” open up his luggage to figure out what the problem was.

The moment he flipped open the lid, that head was right there in the middle of it all. The poor old man working luggage screamed like a pre-pubescent girl. He was terrified at the sight of that head being there.

“Mark” was busy staring into his cell phone when he jumped hearing the old man scream. He looked down and he screamed as well.

“Mark” immediately started to punch at the head, squeezing and pounding it. Allowing for the contents on the inside to scatter all over the place.

That’s right. Horse shit was everywhere. Everything was ruined.

“Mark” soon quit the job a few days later. Not because of the luggage prank, but he started having marital problems being away from home for so long at a time. He went home to fix his marriage.

Moral? Don’t mess with me. Especially if I am the one person you have to answer to.

The REAL Story of A Nightmare On Elm Street

“I’m interested in the dream and subconscious mind, the peculiar dream-like quality of our lives, sometime nightmare quality of our lives.”~ Anthony Hopkins

Fans of Halloween who are still hanging on to the night: Have I got a story for you that just blew my mind!!!

After reading article upon article about horror films and reading TOP LISTS of horror films. I came across one that talked about films that were based on REAL events.

Films such as The Exorcist were on the list. Not all that surprising. Most of us already KNOW the story behind that 1970’s horror film. And a few other exorcism films that came out, also true or based on real life events. As well as ghostly films like The Conjuring.

But in the list was something that I NEVER thought I’d see:

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.

Whoa, wait a minute!! Hold on!!! How in the world is this horror film gem REAL?!?!??  There’s no dream killer. There’s been no reports of a man with blades on his fingers murdering teenagers. So what in the world is going on?

Turns out that back in 1977, there were a group of Asian refugees (the origin or country is unknown and often numerous to this one particular story) were plagued by their nightmares.

Often, they would refuse to sleep because they were too traumatized by their dreams. And exhaustion would ultimately end their lives. Others who would actually fall asleep, would die in their sleep without any signs of physical trauma to their bodies. 

The theory was that while sleeping, they would suffer trauma from their nightmares so much that their body would go into cardiac arrest and then they would die.

Singapore and other Asian countries of perfectly healthy people dying whilst they slept.

This appears to be the link and the beginning influence to the very popular horror film by Wes Craven.

And yet this goes on as a REAL disease called Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome (SUNDS).

You just never really know what else is in this crazy world of ours that is going to stun us with their brand of odd reality.

Here is an article in the New York Times back in 1981 about the strange case:

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/10/us/nightmares-suspected-in-bed-deaths-of-18-laotians.html

A Renewed Faith

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”~  Anaïs Nin

Even though I am not well, I am going to write this story to you because I feel that you need to know about it.

Today is Food Pantry day and as I waited patiently for my turn to go in and then immediately get home, I overheard this woman who (according to herself) is in her 80’s visiting with a neighbor.

She works with this neighbor as sort of a payee. Helping to sort out bills, rent, and the like.

She wasn’t around for very long and then as I was sitting in the hallway, she makes a mention right in front of me that she’s about to get married in the next few days. So the next time we see her, she will be a wife.

It was also mentioned by her that she didn’t really “see it coming” and even after being content of being a widow for the past 34 years, she’s going to take the vows again in her life.  

To be in her 80’s and doing this, really does renew my own faith in what love can do. Love can triumph. Love will persevere.

It a nation where it seems as if love doesn’t seem to be at the front of every day lives, this story slips in and changes everything that I had ever thought I knew about love.

 

 

 

 

We All Are Going To Hell

Hell, Norway

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.”~ Dante Alighieri

I caught the tail end of an amusing conversation this morning.

The topic was strangely named places across the world. Most noted was the question of how many places are named “Hell” in the entire world?

Well, let’s see.

http://www.geonames.org/ 

So then by going to this website and searching the term “hell” you will find all kinds of answers.

I will give you one another example. There is a place in Peru called Infierno which is “Hell” in Spanish.

Looks like Hell is freezing over, in Norway.

Then you have the following places:

Hell, Norway. Hell, Switzerland. Hell, California. Hell, Michigan.

Crap, I’d believe it about a few of them. And I remember many years ago that Michigan INTENTIONALLY named their city “Hell” because during the winter they wanted to have other places that were COLDER than they were to be able to say that they were “Colder then Hell!” which is just the perfect reason to name your city that. Oh well.

But then we continue:

There is Hell, Grand Cayman. In the Cayman Islands.

Of course you can always go to Hell’s Creek in Montana.

Or you could possibly go straight to Hell’s Gates.

Hell’s Gates is located in Australia and is also a named island in Antarctica.

Hell Gate in Florida, Georgia, and in the Bahamas.

Hell is every where in the world!!

Hell’s Gate (note the difference in spelling) is in Montserrat.

Or try living in a Hell Hole:

Hell Hole is in Utah, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

Hell Lake is in Canada. I imagine you can catch some seriously evil fish or marine life. I’m just speculating though.

And if none of that interests you then you can walk away from it all by crossing Hell Bridge in Ireland.

And I suppose all this talk about Hell is getting some people hot under the collar.

I understand. But it is actually very fascinating indeed that in different parts of the world certain words and terms mean different things.

Some of the non-English speaking countries probably had no idea what they were doing when they named these places Hell. Although what Michigan did was stupid. Shame on them. I have relatives that live in Michigan!!!! 

I am not a fan of it all, personally. I think that I will take my chances in …. in Fucking, Austria.

 

Phone Sex 2.0

“I see people putting text messages on the phone or computer and I think, ‘Why don’t you just call?’~ William Shatner

Seriously now. This happened today. I don’t get it. I do not understand it. And I do not have any clue as to why people do the things that they do.

However dear readers, you should get a laugh out of this.

I called someone that I haven’t spoken to in a long time. A buddy of mine, that I understand just found himself a new girlfriend. Yaay!!

So I wanted to get back with him and catch up.

I dialed his number and he answered.

The first thing I noticed was that there was a lot of groaning and moaning and low volume sounds in the background.

Then there was a short period of growling and panting as I began to talk to him, asking how he was doing.

He said in what seemed like a lifetime to say, that he was doing fine and asked me how I was doing.

More sounds and noises came from the background. I suddenly asked him, more like begged for him to admit to me that he was just watching porn. But he said that he was not watching porn.

I hung up.

TRUE STORY.

Who does this sort of thing? I certainly am not understanding it.  He could have ignored the call and then returned it later after all. It’s a little weird. Okay, it is A LOT weird!!!!!!!! 

I get that he’s enjoying this new girlfriend and he’s doing it obviously in more ways than one, but to answer the telephone while you are in the throws of something like that seems a bit excessive and weird.

Just when I think that taking your cell phone with you to the toilet is bad enough. You have full on erotic activities happening and you actually answer a call??

Has this happened to anyone else? Have you actually answered your telephone while in the middle of having sex??And if so, WHY?!?!?!?

 

A Story Of True Christmas Charity

“Lots of people think they’re charitable if they give away their old clothes and things they don’t want.”~ Myrtle Reed

As Christmas Day is now a few days passed us, I’m still thinking about one story that I heard about via Facebook, that just blew me away to the point of my heart just melting and tears forming in the corners of my eyes.

It was a true story of charity that happened. I will however for this blog’s sake paraphrase and hope that in my telling of this story, I get it accurate.

When I heard about what had happened, I sent a message to the person today, to see if I could have her tell the story of her charitable deed done on Christmas Day.

A woman in North Carolina was getting gasoline just shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday when she was having a conversation with a sweet elderly woman who was working at the gas station/store.

The woman had asked the employee what her plans for Christmas were. And the elderly employee had replied that she had nobody to celebrate either holiday with and she had no remaining family left and therefore she would be working on both holidays, that way she could allow for others to spend time with their own families.

It was a sad moment for the woman getting gasoline to the point she mentioned that it broke her heart.

On Christmas Day, the same woman from North Carolina had stopped on the way back from a Christmas family dinner and stopped at a different location and found the woman to be working there. Surprisingly enough, the amount of Christmas gifts that she had in her vehicle was one too many for her family and friends, so she ended up finding the elderly woman and giving her that gift so that she could say that she shared in just that brief moment, some kindness and love on Christmas Day.

This random act of kindness, or RAK, was just the thing that I was most happy to see come across Facebook on Christmas Day this year.  With the previous days of post after post after post after post of people sharing what they had received, in a sense of “LOOK WHAT I GOT!”– this was more of a post of “Look at what has been done.”

This story is inspirational, heart warming and breaking at the same time, and true. I told the woman who explained it that I had wished I lived closer so that I could hug her because it was the most awesome thing I had heard that happened this Christmas. Instead of watching people post about their fancy-dancy and expensive Christmas gifts, a post was displayed from one person’s act of charity and love.

I just wished that there were more stories like this on the Internet. But there isn’t. The tale of charity had actually lifted away the depressing feelings for myself as I sat here at home all alone with nobody to share with. I received a telephone call from various family members but that was about it. That was my Christmas this year.

Hearing about this story, really got me to think though. It really began to change how I feel about people and society in general. Even though I’ve had some difficult times recently, there are some people out there who are full of love and acts of selflessness rather than hatred and violence.

What do you think about this story? What kinds of charitable things have you done recently?