<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Monday, July 25, 2005

So at 12:44 while I am sitting in front of the computer my cell phone rings. I look and it the caller ID says Mom.

Me "Hello."

Mom "Where are you?"

Me "Home. Why?"

Mom "Go see where your father is! He called me. He fell down and hit his head!"

I run upstairs and my dad is standing at the sink holding a towel to his head. There is a huge pool of blood on the floor near the radiator. That is what he must have hit his head on when he passed out. He was covered in blood, all over his chest, arms, face and his shorts. The sink was a mess as was the floor. I think I said something like fucking hell or fucking something or other. I run to the phone (even tho I still had my cell phone in hand) and called 911. I told the operator what happened he said someone will be right there. Back in the bathroom I tried to get my dad to sit down. He kept saying he was OK and he was fine. He had managed to get the bleeding stopped. I went down to open the door for the emergency crew and saw that my mom had just pulled up to the house.

A couple on minutes after that the fire engine showed up and took a look at my dad. Then the EMTs showed up on the scene. They asked him a few questions. He doesn't remember much at all. He got the day of the week wrong when he was asked. He thought it was Tuesday. He was more coherent then the times before when this has happened. He knew that he fell. He knew what was going on around him. Still a little shaky and confused just not as bad.

They asked us a few questions. What happened? Who was home? Is he on meds of any kind. Stuff like that. I had heard nothing. I had been out earlier, when I can home at around 11:00 I heard the shower going so I new my dad was awake. At 11:44 ( I looked at all the times later)the phone rang once. I looked, saw that it was my mom's cell phone and hollered up stairs asking my dad if he had picked it up, he had. I went back to the computer and one hour later my mom called my cel phone telling me that he had fallen.

I just got of the phone with my mom they are stiching him up. They think it could be dehydration+his blood pressure was low. They really have no clue to an exact reason why it happened. He will be home later today, hopefully we might have more answers then but I doubt it very much. He still drinks and drinks too much. That is what causes the dehydration I am sure. He told my mom at the hospital that he is going to give up drinking. Believe it when I see it.

One other thing. Cleaning up blood is a bitch. It takes forever and it goes everywhere. So if any of you are planning murder in the future do it somewhere that you will not need to get rid of the blood. If you need to clean it up CSI will nail your ass to the wall.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Bus Brawl! 

So last night I had the chance to go to my second Redsox game of the season. My mom received the tickets from her work. It was a work outing for her. All the employees had two tickets each. My mom asked my dad first but with his bad back he wouldn't be able to sit comfortably in the Fenway seats. I then said Brian could have first dibs (nice brother that I am) on the ticket and he declined (I knew he would).

The way it was set up was everyone was to meet around 5 at the Adams Inn in North Quincy (the old Quincy Bay Inn). They were serving free hotdogs, hamburgers, sausages and corn on the cob. You could get a drink or two at the bar and sit out on the nice back deck. They had a bus all set to take everyone to the game. Now, it wasn't just the people from the funeral home it was also employees from The Adams Inn plus a few other people. The bus was set to leave at 6.

We get to the game no problem and head to our seats in the bleachers. I had a fenway frank (you have to have one when you are there it is the rule). The game was good and Manny hit a homerun, Schilling got the save and the Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devilrays 5-2. Dirty Water was playing as we exited the park and headed for the bus.

Finding the bus was no small task. We had the number of the bus but it wasn't in the spot where it dropped us off. So after some searching the bus was located down the street and around the corner. All aboard. It was slow going at first because of all the traffic in the area all trying to get out and go home. The bus is crowded. It is a tour bus like a Peter Pan or Greyhound. At the back of the bus there was about 10-12 people standing up because there wasn't enough seats.

Round 1:

Now, we aren't even away from the Fenway area when a fight breaks out on the bus. Yes a fight. A scrum a brawl a ruckus, a rumble, a scrap. A donnybrook on the bus. It broke out amongst the Adams Inn group and it was the people standing. Fists were flying. Everyone was shouting, pushing and cursing. People went back to break it up and the offenders were pulled apart. Three guys left the bus and we were on our way again. Order was restored.

Round 2:

A girl comes walking from the back of the bus up to the front she sits down for about three seconds and then heads back the way she came. Another scrum starts with more shouting. The girl who walked back grabbed another girl by the throat and started choking her, lifting her off the seat. I could see the people trying to pull them away from each other. People were swearing more pushing and shoving until finally they were separated. The girl came back to the front of the bus and sat down.

Round 3: (Verbal)

It was quiet for a while. The bus pulled onto Mass Ave heading towards the highway. We were about 1/2 way down Mass Ave when the girl who was choked started hollering to be let off the bus. She and her friend wanted to get off. Her father was going to meet them and pick them up because she had called him. No one was going to let them off. Good thing to because that part of Mass Ave (at 11:00 at night) isn't the best place for a couple of blonde white girls to be walking around in their cute little redsox outfits. She hollered the entire way back.
"Why won't you let me off the bus?"
"I didn't do anything your douchebag daughter started it."
(From what I understand the Adams Inn has a lot of family working there. Fathers daughters cousins that sort of thing).
"I come out of the bathroom and get shoved for no reason."
"I never did anything to you. Why won't you let me off this bus?"
"I wasn't even drinking tonight."
Blah blah blah.

It went on like that the rest off the way back to the Adams Inn. Nothing else happened when they let everybody off the bus. The choker girl was let off first and the bus then pulled away and dropped the rest off us off at another part of the parking lot. Everyone went their separate ways and that is my story.

Peace out

Sunday, July 17, 2005

National Security. 

What should happen to Karl Rove and Lewis Libby is much different than what will happen to them. If indeed they are the source of the leak, which of course our friends in the Bush administration have been denying for these past few years. What better way to enhance our National Security? People in our own country, people in power, are leaking info for what? Revenge? Seriously, if that was "Joe Citizen" or God forbid someone in the Democratic party it would be game over. In jail, in some deep dark dungeon with the key melted down and tossed away.

I am sure that every administration has secrets to cover up and things better off not coming out to the light of day. The Bush administration seems to just do what they want and say FUCK OFF to the country. To the whole world. You don't like what we are doing? Fuck you! You are an unpatriotic anti-american son off a bitch.

Three more fucking years. Good Lord.

Word of the week kind of says it all.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

PACK RAT 

Hello my name is Jim and I am a pack rat. I keep everything and I mean everything. On Wednesday I decided to clean my room. I have been meaning to do this for a while now. It had been a long time since my room has seen the business end of a duster. It was time. First order of business was to get all the magazines, CDs, books and papers off the floor. Most of it was tossed on the bed to be sorted out later. Once the floor was clear of obstacles and I could actually see it I brought out the floor duster. I cleaned everywhere, in the corners, under the bureau and beneath the bed where the dust bunnies were huge and evil looking. I cleared off the top of the bureau, desk and entertainment center (which had more books, magazines and papers for me to go through). Soon the dusting was done and the windows were squeaky clean. It was time to go onto the hardest most time consuming part of this cleaning adventure.

I put all my Cds back in the rack in the appropriate alphabetical spot. All my little nick-nacks placed back on the shelves. I put the books on one of the bookcases. Sorted through the magazines and kept the ones I wanted and placed the others in a bag to go out for recycling. I piled all the papers together until I was done with everything else. My plan was to bring those papers downstairs and look through them while I was watching the news the next morning. That didn't happen until Friday. It was mostly bank statements and old check stubs from EatonVance. I put everything in separate piles threw out stuff I wouldn't need and brought it back upstairs to be filed.

I also had a separate pile for stuff I wanted to shred. This was mostly credit card offers and things of that nature. I have a small shoebox in my room with more of the same a lot of that was also paid bills that had account numbers and my name and address. With all the identity theft going on these days you can't be too careful. I grabbed the shoebox and plugged in the shredder. Let the shredding begin!

By the time I reached the bottom of that shoebox I found stuff dated back to December 2001. Obviously it has been quite some time since I did this last. Pretty bad huh? I mean 2001? Wait. it is going to get worse, much worse. I finished shredding that stuff including a box of checks I had, the bank had fucked up the number sequence and they were useless. I went to go file the stuff from earlier and saw that my file box was crammed full. No more room. So I became ambitious and decided that I would thin those papers out and make the room that I needed.

This is where you will see my pack rat nature. I had kept all my check stubs from Eaton Vance. I would just file them away. Placed them in my EV folder and they piled up. I also saved piles of memo's regarding stock purchases. 401K quarterly statements profit sharing statements and other useless paper. Going through all this stuff I found my very first check stub from EV. Way back in 1995. I also came across my 6-month review from when I first started (along with all the ones after). I found outdated healthcare pamphlets and benefit package books. Why was I keeping all this crap? To what end? 98% of it went to the shredder. I kept the stubs from 2004-present and the stock purchase memos that tells me how much at what price with the date.

I came across my taxes from previous years, which of course I wanted to keep, but there was three years in the middle missing I couldn't find them. Then I remembered. I had another box upstairs with "important papers" to be filed. I found the tax stuff in a full corona box. Great, more stuff to sift through.

I have (or had) all my bank statements, with the cancelled checks. All of them. All from Citizens Bank (my current bank), Quincy Savings (which was bought out by Citizens), and ...are you ready for this? BayBank. Remember BayBank? I had that account back when I was at Dean Junior College. That was 1990/91 (and my first checking account). I had cancelled checks all the way back to 1990. Fuck! I figured all I really need is maybe the past 5 years of bank statements. Everything else went to the shredder.

I did the shredding off and on all day/night Friday. I still have a few more things to do today. The end is in sight. One small pile left. I think I filled three garbage bags (kitchen size). I probably burnt out the shredder as well.

Hello my name is Jim and I am a pack rat.

Peace out.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Trip to the North End 

Today was a good day. My mom and I went into the North End for a late lunch/early dinner. My dad who isn't a big fan of the Italian food declined to join us. We decided to take the Harbor Express in from Quincy (right before the Fore River Bridge). It lets you off right next to the Marriott Hotel beside the Aquarium It was a perfect day for the boat ride. The weather was hot but it was nice out on the harbor. It takes about 40-45 minutes same as the train would have but much much better. No crowded car with no AC and someone with BO crammed up next to you.

We really were not sure where we wanted to eat and decided to just poke around Hanover St. and Salem St. Until we found something that interested us. We finally picked a place on Richmond Street (connects Hanover and Salem) called Pagliaciua(sp?). It was fantastic, soooo good. We started off with Apps, mom got an Insallata Salad and I had a salami peppers and provolone cheese plate that was awesome. We ordered some wine, a Ruffino Chianti (mostly because it was the only thing on the wine list that came in a 1/2 bottle). The wine was also very very good. We each got about 2 half glasses out of that and we ended up ordering another glass each (which were nice and full to the brim).

It is a very small place and the restaurant was a little busy when we got there about 2:15ish and it was very crowded as we sat there enjoying our meals. It didn't help that there was only 2 waitresses working when we got there. They were both running around crazy like trying to keep everyone happy. This caused the service to be on the slow side but if I am in the North End it doesn’t bother me in the least. I like to take it slow and enjoy it all at my own pace.

For my main course I ordered the veal/eggplant Parmesan plate which in retrospect I should have just ordered the eggplant parm. The veal was just OK nothing spectacular. The eggplant on the other hand was great. (As I typed this I realized what I didn't like about the veal, it wasn't breaded like I would normally get veal parm). My mom ordered Veal Verdiccio, which had peppers and artichoke hearts and butter all in a wine sauce and that was excellent. So good.

After that we headed to the spice store on the corner of Richmond and Salem. I wanted to see if they had any cheese. I wanted to get a hunk of Provolone because it was so tasty in the restaurant. I love that little store because of the way it smells. All those spices and herbs, the scents mingling together, it is fantastic.

After that we headed over to Mike's for dessert. Yeah I know Modern is better and that Mike's is the touristy place to go. I wanted a Florentine canole and as far as I know they don't have them at the Modern Bakery. So there! Mom picked up some macaroons for herself and some other cookies for my dad. Dessert in hand we headed back to the boat eating along the way.

I got home and went for a nice swim because it is hot and muggy here again after a beautiful weekend. All in all it was an excellent day and I am stuffed and a little sleepy.

Peace out.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?