Hi-Brow + Low-Brow = Uni-Brow

I just got back from a week in Joshua Tree.

It reminded me of your album Joshua Tree, which is lovely, thank you for that.

I understand when you were out there, you didn't actualy go into Joshua Tree National Park.

Perhaps you should have.

Perhaps it would have inspired you to write two more songs.

Then you could have cut "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared."

That would have been better for everyone.

Love,

Jeff

P.S. I wouldn't miss "Exit" either.

One more Chuckle Head story.

There are little storage bins in the garage area and Chuckle Head had one.

Sue opened it up to clean it out.

Inside she found

Five cock rings
A tub of vaseline
A book called "How to Improve your Credit Rating"

Which is the package you get if you call in to PBS and pledge at the 75 dollar level.

She sat down with each one of us individually and asked us what we wanted from her as a manager. Each one of my coworkers said "Don't lie to us."

I said "If you're going to lie to us, take notes so that you can tell each of us the same lie."

Yesterday afternoon I got home and a guy was pushing a loudly rattling wheeled bin past my door and window and dumping debris into a bin right under my window. Rattle, rattle, rattle, dump, whoosh.

Man that was great!

It was Gus the hazmat guy removing a bunch of stuff from Chucklehead's place. He sprayed the place down with an industrial disinfectant to let it soak in overnight before his crew comes in today. Then he hauled out some stuff in bags to get a start on it. Today his whole crew will be in to finish it up.

I wish I knew of a school where I could get certified as Hazmat Tech AND Exorcist. This place needs both.

Chucklehead called Sue last week to tell her an important package was going to be arriving for him. This is after Sue told him that she would no longer collect mail for him and that he had ample time to get this handled at the post office. A package did arrive. It was Next Day Express which means he ordered it after the eviction. Sue marked it Return to Sender and sent it away. Then on Saturday he shows up at the building. This is after he was told we'd call the sheriff's on him. Sue didn't buzz him in but told him over the intercom that his package had been sent back and that he had to leave.

I just talked to Karen and she said it looks like the hazmat guys might be done already or at least have all the stuff out.

In other news, I finally put in my ambulance hours for my EMT class. I rode fire calls in Torrance from 9am to 9pm on Sunday. Pretty interesting stuff. Worked with Torrance Fire, Torrance PD a lot and ran one call with LA County Fire.

Just like my instructors said -- trauma calls are dramatic but ultimately not that interesting. Bang, smack, spurt. You straighten stuff out, you stop stuff from leaking and bring them to the hospital. The guys I was working with found the big auto accident we worked to be the most interesting call of the day. Granted it was an exotic feat of high velocity engineering to get those cars into those improbable positions, but the medical calls were more interesting to me. The company I worked with works predominantly fire calls so it's a big fire shop -- everyone I worked with that day was either in, just finished or was just starting the fire academy and/or paramedic school so that makes sense. You work these fire call companies and it's all hose jocks. You work a company that does predominantly interfacility transports and it's all pre-med and nursing students.

Also just like my instructors said, you get called to a convalescent home for a "routine transport" and you find your patient is in extremis and you gotta call in the cavalry.

I saw some pretty sleazy convalescent homes, maybe Chucklehead has a point staying out of them. I'm not sure whose problem he is now, I'm just glad he's not mine.

I'm not sure, what, if anything I want to do with my EMT training. Do I want a rewarding, manly, slightly dangerous but very rewarding low paying job? Or do I want to stick with my higher paying, cushy, safe, stupid, girly, pointless and completely unrewarding job?

I'll say this, at this job, people only shit on me figuratively.

Guess who came back yesterday?

He came back to get his mail from Sue and he asked if he and a friend could go through his stuff.

Sue said "No you are not allowed to be here."
"The Sheriffs said I had 14 days to get my stuff."
"No, you had 14 days to get your car."
"Fine, then I'll just send my friend."
"No, anything in that apartment is now the property of the landlord you have no right to be here and no right to anything left here."

Somewhere in here he mentioned that he got a post office box. Sue said "Good, because I'm not going to collect your mail any more. You've had enough time to sort this out with the post office. There's a new tenant and the mailbox key is going to him."

Sue repeated several times that he has no right to be here and that if any of us see him here we will call the sheriffs. He got mad and said "you don't have to keep repeating yourself over and over!" Sue said "Yes, I think I probably do because you don't seem to be getting it."

Sue kicks serious ass. She's one of those people that can say stuff. I suppose I could have roughly communicated the same ideas but there would have been a lot more Ks in the words I chose.

It's been really unfair for poor Sue. We have all been burdened by this but she has shouldered an unfair amount because he focused so much of his wrath and hallucinatory bullshit on her. Just as she was getting tenure, this bullshit started coming down so she went right from the stress of the tenure process right into his shit.

It kinda hits me on a primal level too. Someone is threatening the women folk when I'm not around. (Note: the "women folk" in this case are brilliant, competent and lethal but my primitive brain does not register that) Consequently I am left with a fairly decent chunk of leftover rage. It's like doing security/bouncer type stuff and a fight ALMOST happens. It gets right to the brink and then doesn't happen. You're left trying to re-integrate all that adrenaline back into your system. I feel the same way here. I've had so many scenarios run through my head that involved fire extinguishers, OC spray, my MagLite flashlight and his collarbone, etc. that now I feel jangled by the fight that didn't happen.

Not that I think it's over. He is a profoundly disturbed and angry man. Like my doctor said "dementia PLUS meth? ... get a gun ..."

The professional cleaner also arrived yesterday to take a look. He's seen this exact scenario and he's seen worse. He said the non-porous surfaces -- wood floors, walls, linoleum can be steamed into safety but anything porous -- carpets, drapes, etc. can still harbor hepatitis and will need to be disposed of properly. Even more specialized specialists will have to come in for the medical waste (hypos). He asked how discrete he would have to be and would the neighbors be upset if they saw people in hazmat suits and masks in their building? Sue said no, we know how bad it is and we want to see that. We all said the same thing, we'd be upset if we didn't see the proper precautions. I sure as shit don't want them suiting up inside the hot zone. I want them suiting up in the hallway (cold zone) {we had a hazmat segment in EMT class can you tell?}

Pretty primal stuff. Someone coming around to threaten my pack? As I've said, he never shows up when I'm around and that's too bad because he sounds really agitated and I would love to calm him down with a little pepper spray aromatherapy and then a soothing massage with my MagLite flashlight. (4D cells -- one size too big for the NYPD). Maybe I'll even tickle him with my Monadnock kubotan.

I am sooo sick of this fuckstick, how is it he's not dead yet? What is this a Halloween movie?

So yeah he came and got his car and, terrifyingly enough, he drove it away himself.

He left a slightly weepy message on Sue's machine saying he's at a motel in Glendale.

Then yesterday Sue could smell that familiar stench and then another neighbor heard movement in the apartment. So Sue opened the door and found one of Chucklehead's friends in there. He had keys and said he didn't realize that C.H. had been evicted, that he'd been out of town and just had a buncgh of messages on his machine saying he needed help moving.

A couple things in his story don't sound right. He said he didn't see the notice on the door reading "EVICTION" and also he didn't open up the doors and windows while he was working there but actually moved a heavy table in front of the door. My hunch is that he was looking for money, meth or even meds that C.H. had left behind. This guy is kinda perpy too.

So Sue booted him out but was so flustered by the whole thing she forgot to take the guy's keys.

Another revolting development is that Sue saw a bag of hypos in there. They appeared to be unused but it certainly raises the probability of used ones being in there. This apartment is a triple threat now: biohazard, hazmat and medical waste.

Oy this is just the gift that keeps on giving.

It sure was nice to sit by and even go in the pool though.

As for the motel in Glendale, yeah that's comfortingly far away. It's a fairly pricy cab ride. His doctors are all here in the basin, so why Glendale?

My theory: It's near his dealer. I think that's why he's not come through on his promise to check himself into a hospice. He doesn't want to give up using.

Oh yeah, that meth, that's the good stuff, yup. Makes you sexy and smart and a better person. Oh yeah, meth, yup, good stuff.

This really is the gift that keeps on giving. I'm not going to feel entirely comfortable until a professional hazmat crew cleans it up, somebody else moves in, the landlord changes the keys and chucklehead drops dead. Until then I can't help but know that a demented and angry individual is out there smoking meth and having weird angry fixations on my pal Sue and my wife.

Did I mention that meth is good stuff? Yeah, that's the good stuff all right.