who’s watching who?

On Thursday Emily & I went to eat pizza at Cosmo’s with Nanci. We parked on the street across from the Five Points fountain, where we have Food Not Bombs on Sundays. As Emily was parking, I saw out of the corner of my eye a cop I’d never seen before talking aggressively to a homeless guy sitting on the wall. I kept an eye on him as Emily finished parking, and saw him pull a billy club or a gun on the guy (it was dark, I couldn’t tell which) and throw the guy headfirst into the sidewalk.

Fuck, oh fuck, what do I do? The cop is yelling, calling for backup, kicking the guy in the back as he laid on the ground. I jumped out of the car, ran across the street, and pulled out my cell phone. It doesn’t take video, but I figured what the hell, just having it out might make the cop settle down. Sure enough, it worked. The cop started yelling at me – “you can’t video this” and “put that camera away” to which I yelled back “it’s not a videocamera, it’s a cell phone” (which was true). He yelled “put that away right now, why do you have it out like it’s a camera” and I yelled back “why are you so nervous about it?”. He shut up after that, and another cop got there and the situation settled down a little bit. Emily came over and I stayed there for a while, cell phone up. At one point the cop yelled at the guy, saying “look at this, look at all these people who are watching you” to which I said “we’re not watching him, we’re watching you”.

We hung around for a bit before crossing the street and going to eat at Cosmo’s, where they have the best pizza sauce in the whole world. Herman, who sits on the wall most days and nights, came by, ate a couple slices of pizza and had a pepsi, and said he wasn’t really sure what was going on but he thought the cop was just being a jerk.

limbo

Emily and I had a great time in Atlanta. This past week has not been so great. It was the elementary schoolkids spring break, which is normally great because most folks are on vacation with their families. However, this past week has sucked. I have been so, so busy, and haven’t had time to think about catching up, much less catch up.

It’s getting to be that time again – we have found an apartment and are planning to move into it at the end of April. We’re going sometime this week to seal the deal, and I’m going to put in my notice to my current landlord on the first. Hopefully we won’t get screwed over again. If we do, it will be much more of a BigDeal, because I will have put in my notice.

The commercial break is over. Back to basketball. I really *am* a jock.

aged pamphleteer

My basketball picks are done (four pools worth!) and I’m headed to bed. Thought I’d drop by and say that, so far the book is a very interesting read. I’ll definitely write a little summary when I’m finished with it.

Almost got attacked by a dog while running today. Looked like a mixed lab-pit. He almost got hit by a car trying to get to me – that probably slowed him down a little bit and I started walking and yelled in my most bad-ass voice “GO HOME”. He snarled and for a split second I thought my only option was going to be to hop a fence, but then he stopped and I sped up.

We’re going to Atlanta this weekend for our three year anniversary. So far our (very well thought out) itenerary includes: seeing Lucinda Williams at the Tabernacle, the aquarium, the art museum, Ethiopian food, and a stop at an Irish pub in honor of St. Paddy’s day. I can’t believe it’s been three years – and I can’t wait for more.

birds aren’t the only thing
on the wire

This afternoon I rode my bike downtown to the library to pick up an origami book and Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. On the way there I ran into Chuck #2, another homeless guy whose sister died last week from either an overdose or a pimp. His sister wasn’t technically on the street, but she might as well have been. He said the pimp was at the funeral and he wanted to kill him, but he didn’t “by the grace of God”.

We talked about that for a while – or rather, he talked, I just listened. Most of the time, the homeless people I talk to don’t believe me when I tell them I don’t believe in God, and he was really hurting so I didn’t want to get into a discussion about it. I figure if believing in God is helping him through his sisters death, then by all means, he should believe in God.

He said that a few days ago, a do-gooder Christian came to the park and was witnessing to people. He said the guy asked him if he was saved, to which he replied “Let me show you where I sleep. If I can sleep on a sidewalk, behind a bush, then I have to have faith in something that will keep me safe through the night.”

We talked for about thirty minutes, there on the sidewalk a block away from the library. I gave him three hugs and told him I loved him. That’s all I’ve got to give; hugs and love.

P.S. Homeless folks People aren’t allowed in the downtown library if they are carrying an oversized bag with clothes in it. Although I walked right in with my messenger bag and bike helmet, no questions asked.

P.P.S. The downtown library has Make! *and* Mother Jones. I was simultaneously disappointed and excited that they didn’t have The SUN, which is my absolute favorite magazine. Now I *have* to renew my subscription.

“Pure self-expression is only possible after one discovers that there is nothing one must do, admits there is nothing one ought to do, and accepts that there is rarely anything that one even CAN do– and then, with whatever is left of the self, deciding what one will do.”

–comment by hermitosis on this thread.

—

Today I was setting up a printer for Dr. Basil Hirschowitz, when he mentioned that this year was the 50th anniversary of the invention of the flexible endoscope (an invention which, by all accounts, revolutionized modern gastroenterology). I asked him to tell me about the development of his idea – which he very kindly did. Afterwards he noted “We had the luxury of being ignorant – we could try all sorts of things thought to be impossible”.

IMG_0550

Lots of geocaching at Oak Mountain on Saturday. So much geocaching that we ended up leaving the Peavine Falls parking lot around 5:15ish with absolutely no spring in our step and only an hour to walk three miles before they closed the gate. Hitched a ride back to the car with a very nice older couple, driving a little SUV with a “Bush 04″ sticker on it, one with a rat-tail longer than my hair. They told us they had been out fishing, only because deer season ended two weeks ago and so (regrettably) “even if you see ‘em you can’t shoot ‘em”.

Stopped at the brand spankin’ new Whole Foods market on the way home…after half an hour in the parking lot we finally found a spot. Got some FRESH PEANUT BUTTER (which you cannot get anywhere in this town…until now. Wow I’m easily excited!) and some awesome key lime green tea soda and some snow pea leaves. It’s a good thing that Whole Foods is out on 280 (which I only venture down once a month on my trek to Target to get wet cat food and laundry detergent), or I’d spend my whole (ha ha) paycheck there.

We’re back on the running thing again, after a week off for TheSickness. Except for tomorrow, no, tomorrow is the Festival of Colors celebration at Taj India with my ex-rugby pals. The only thing better than Indian food with friends is having Indian food with friends and getting to throw colored powder on each other.

Be happy for each other, please. Today I found out that the one of the best runners in Birmingham, a 29-year old in awesome shape who left behind most other runners in the dust, collapsed this weekend in the middle of running a regional half-marathon. He was airlifted to UAB and there is nothing more medically that can be done. Memento vivere | Memento mori indeed.

lines

I’m finally over being sick – had the flu (or a flu-like cold) for almost a week. I feel like I’ve woken up, refreshed, anew.

Just before I got sick, I made a new living room. Found an awesome couch/chair/ottoman on craigslist, bought a 8″ bookcase from Ikea, and a coffee table from World Market. (Actually, Emily and I went in together on most of it, since we’re moving in together in a matter of weeks.) I’ve had basically the same exact furniture since i moved into this apartment seven years ago – and it is really nice to have a living room that melds together. We’ll probably get rid of all of it when we move, but for now it’s nice to have furniture that somewhat reflects my age.

Speaking of age, I’ve been beating my head against a wall for a while now, trying to install/configure/test RedHat Cluster Suite at work. Rather, I’ve been beating my head against a concrete wall with embedded steel spikes, repeatedly, for about a month and a half. It’s poorly documented, and confusing as hell. Today in a moment of pure genuis I ran the Veritas Cluster Server simulator, and immediately after got an evaluation license key from our vendor. I mean, there are actually things you can control from the GUI interface! It’s smooth like butter, and way better for me, I’m sure.

Best album I’ve heard lately? The Velvet Underground & Nico, released in 1967. I never realized how influential the Velvet Underground were before I got a chance to really savor this record.