Don't Suspect Your Neighbor, Report Him!

The night before last Lis and I were woken at 1:23am by Hondo’s barking. Hondo had run down to the street-facing kitchen window and could not be quieted. I noted that I could hear an intermittent car horn; immediately I thought someone could have been getting attacked or some such. I got dressed and went outside. One house down to the left (my most excellent neighbor Mike’s house), on the sidewalk was a Jeep. On it’s side. Mike was just coming outside, both of us noted the Jeep. We climbed up on it to determine if anyone was inside. The Jeep was not occupied. The horn kept bleating, on and off.

The Jeep Mystery was quickly solved when the owner ran up to Mike and I and stated he owned the Jeep, was on his cell phone, wasn’t paying attention, ran off the road and rolled the Jeep. Jeep-Roller had run over to Bert The Cop's house because Bert The Cop should know what to do. Soon the following neighbors were assembled: 3XHAR, Mike, The Kid, Bert The Cop, Jeep-Roller. Jeep-Roller only had to make it fifty more feet to get to his own driveway. A consensus evolved to defer to Bert The Cop regarding the necessity of notifying the authorities. Bert The Cop did not indicate a call was necessary. In a neighborly and quite manly fashion we up-righted the Jeep. Jeep-Roller started the vehicle and drove the remaining fifty feet to his driveway. The Jeep was totaled.

There was speculation that evening by The Kid, myself (3XHAR), and Mike that Jeep-Roller may have had a drink prior to rolling his Jeep onto Mike’s sidewalk. I thought I smelled alcohol, but didn’t notice Jeep-Roller acting intoxicated. When The Kid asked Bert The Cop if he thought Jeep-Roller was drunk, he stated: ‘I don’t know. I didn’t ask him (Jeep-Roller) any questions.’ Fine.

It must be asked: should I have called the police to have them investigate this accident? Have I acted immorally or unethically by my inaction? My rationalizations for not calling the police are:

1. There was already an off duty cop there. We deferred to his specialized knowledge on these matters. He did not indicate a necessity to notify the authorities.

2. There were no injuries and no property damage other than Jeep-Rollers Jeep. Had there been injuries or property damage I would have felt it necessary for me to notify the authorities.

3. In 3XHAR World the police are only called in emergency situations, and to my way of thinking, this did not qualify as an emergency. Again, no injuries and no property damage. I dislike involving the authorities in almost any circumstance.

4. The Long Memory of Neighbors. This one takes some explaining. I’ve had an enduring concern about getting stuck with bad neighbors. In my childhood we lived in a nice quiet area, quiet except for one bad neighbor. In adulthood I’ve considered myself lucky that my neighbors do not generally annoy me, are not needlessly malicious, do not keep me awake at night. I do not want to be the neighbor who falsely accuses another neighbor of any crime. Once you’ve crossed that line you can end up with a permanently stained interaction that could last years. So, when it comes to calling the police on a neighbor I have a pretty high threshold of evidence that needs to be met, and this situation did not meet it.

The next day Lisa looked up the Jeep-Roller household through some websites. There’s no history of drunk driving or any other law breaking that she could find… Have to keep an eye on them now... Those folks just ain't right.

3XBARF

Monday night, starting at about 4:35pm, I spent an epic 18-hour marathon on the bathroom floor. My Lisa, poor Lisa, was subjected to the sounds of volley after volley of strange and exotic gastrointestinal catastrophe. I couldn’t even keep down two mouthfuls of water.

I tried to go to work yesterday and came home after about an hour and a half. Today, my manager and the director of my department sent me home after I had a salad for lunch. That’s what you get for eating like a rabbit. They said my color was changing as they were watching me…

My symptoms: vomitting, headache, maybe a slight fever at times. [As of this writing, my current rabbity lunch is still inside my body.]

Anyway, this bout of illness has allowed me to catch up on many movies and TV shows. While ill I have watched ‘The Last Samurai’, ‘Shrek II’ and the entire series, ‘Band of Brothers’.

Watching ‘Band of Brothers’ all the way through was kind of a treat. Easier to follow than watching weekly installments. Very moving. It’s one of my favorite TV series, right up there with ‘From Earth to the Moon’ and ‘Sopranos’. Ah, cable series…

Prior to my illness I had watched the following films on the Sony: ‘Gladiator’, ‘Blackhawk Down’, ‘City of God’, ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’, ‘Donnie Darko’ and parts of ‘Return of the King (yeah, the Minas Tirith battle)’ and ‘The Hulk (the tank fight)’.

I hadn’t seen ‘Shrek II’, ‘Donnie Darko’, or ‘City of God’ previously. I’d highly recommend ‘City of God’ and ‘Shrek II’, and recommend ‘Donnie Darko’ if you’re looking for something surreal and trippy like ‘Pi’ or ‘Vanilla Sky’. I’d suggest watching ‘City of God’ after you watch the documentary that’s part of the disc. Grim.

I can’t write more. Have to lie down.

Stein Night Recap, June

I'm writing this half a week from the event itself, so cut me some slack and feel free (if you attended) to fill in the topics you recall... But, anyway, here is a vague and incomplete recap of subjects discussed last Stein Night:

Krakauer’s Mormons; Waitress Rage; Baseball; Re-Speaking History, Addendums And Corrections; Suburban Critter Alerts; Meteoric Leg-Hip-Spine; Blogapalooza, The Great Blog Quiz Of 2005, The Many Uses Of Blogs, Discussions Of The Blog As A Debate Medium; The Knife!; As If On Cue, A Lisa Shows Up; New And Improved Anti-Insurgent Tactics; Is Syria Next, And If Not, Should It Be?; Visits To The Green And Gold; New Super-Heated Gas TV; Oil; A Frenetic Week; Rock Star Parking Achievements; Subtle And Not So Subtle Differences Between Israeli’s Killing Arab Terrorists And Chechen Separatists Killing School Children; Marathon Work Shifts; Red Bull; Green Cars And GM; When The Round Table Is Not Ours, It’s Chair Roulette; Death And Deaths; Wal-Mart Just Can’t Win; Where The Hell Did The Israeli’s Get An Idi Amin Doppleganger On Such Short Notice?; Stein Night Attendees Reiterate A General Belief That Kim Jong Il Is Quite Mad; Is Your State On Fire, Under Water, Or Frozen Solid, And Which Do You Prefer?; A Singing Of Happy Birthday Is Narrowly Avoided; Jim’s Hair Is Huge, And Not So Different From A Certain Insane North Korean Tyrants Hair; The Middle Class Mildly Risk Aversive Theory Of Steady Growth; It Ain't Mug Night, It's Stein Night; Homicide Statistics: Chicago Organized Crime Versus Mexico.

Painting

Every year My Lisa and I, 3XHAR, attend Art Fair On The Square in Madison, WI. Last year we purchased a photo from Lee Rentz. The photo is titled, ‘Antarctic Ice I: A tribute to Shackleton’. You can check it out on his website at www.leerentz.com. I love the sun-lit ice blues, and the Shackleton tie-in really got me. Mr. Rentz was affable and interesting; we will certainly visit him again at this year’s fair on July 9-10th.

The photo will now be placed in our newly finished downstairs room. Thanks to Broken Little Person Sitting On A Treelimb, the painting has been finished. Tomorrow I’ll replace the doors, rearrange the furniture and tidy up. Tuesday the new TV will arrive: 42” Sony, plasma widescreen. It seemed lonely in the store and needed a home.