make a cup of tea, put a record on...

I rolled over after strange dreams involving bit part acquaintances to the alarm on my phone, stumbled out the door with a bag full of music to the station, the show was an extended edition this morning due to the other disc-spinner's car trouble. Since the laptop died, I'm unable to make mix CDs, but shifting the show back to analog/digital before the imminent demise has tempered that, though I was scatterbrained this morning and sometimes wonder if I really do just play different rotations of the same 50 favorite bands that sound good at 5am, leaning heavily on Aging Alternative Rockers and all.

The annual station shindig is coming up in a matter of days now, I bought a beautiful bass guitar off a former bandmate and haven't even had a chance to play it. I still find the whole lack of similarly minded people to jam with occasionally vexing. Now that I finally have instruments I like playing I've got less and less people to play them with, not that the social life and creative pursuits have been wanting in any way but I miss the heck out of creative noise making.

Meanwhile, there's homework, and so I'm at the computer lab at the public library procrastinating and being a bit creeped out. I forget how much worse this segment of the public is and that I'd rather deal with The Kids than the Creepy Old Men. Just because we serve you doesn't mean we like you, and this paper might be even more stupid than the last one. I feel like a creep just being here. .

best of the blotter: Kenny Rogers, Chuck E. Cheese, and Cupcakes

SUSPICIOUS PERSON, CREEKBEND COURT: A bus driver for St. Mary’s School in Berea said just before 8 a.m. Oct. 3 an older man who looks like Kenny Rogers was in the area walking a Cockapoo.
She has noticed the man walking the dog the past week, or so, and only when there is a little girl by herself at the bus stop.
The parents of the girl said they see the man, who is retired, all the time walking his dog, and everyone in the neighborhood knows him.

SUSPICIOUS PERSON, ROYALTON ROAD: A Strongsville Holiday Inn employee said a man, 56, was acting strangely at 2:30 a.m. Oct. 3.
He claimed he had $55,000 in his suitcase and wanted the clerk to call a limousine to take him to Florida. The man was described as having a gray beard and wearing a black T-shirt that said "Bite Me" on the back.
Officers said the man checked OK — he just needed a flight to Florida.
Later that day, at 7:30 p.m., the man refused to pay a $100 bill in the hotel lounge, and was complaining of chest pains. He was taken to Southwest General Medical Center, but was advised he was not welcome back at the hotel.

DISTURBANCE, WEST 130th STREET: Two kids in clown masks were running around the parking lot of the Boston Square Plaza Shopping Center at 7:45 p.m. Oct. 2, darting in and out of traffic throughout the lot.
An officer spoke to one of the children, who admitted he and his friends were goofing off. They returned home for the night.

No game for drug-dealing referee — If a Chardon man planned to sell marijuana after his gig as a referee at an area high school football game, he probably shouldn't have stopped to chat with officers.

Roger Ward, 22, was scheduled to work Westlake's homecoming game against Olmsted Falls last week. Before kickoff, he pulled into the Westlake Police station to ask where he should park. Instead of advice, he got arrested.

Police noticed the smell coming from his car and soon found marijuana in jars and plastic containers, cigars filled with marijuana, plastic baggies, a scale, a pipe, a knife and $1,391 in cash

Assault
A 25-year-old Hartville father took his three children to Chuck E. Cheese on Sept. 29 but quickly left after assaulting the manager over bringing in a bottle of tea.
According to a Fairlawn police report, the manager called police after he told the man he couldn't bring his bottle of tea into the establishment. The man started arguing with the manager and grabbed him by the neck.
The report said there were several witnesses and the incident was caught on security cameras.
Police caught up with the man near Target and charged him with assault. He was released with a court summons.


House gets cupcaked — A Bath Township woman decided not to answer a 1 a.m. doorbell ring on Sept. 30. When she woke up, she found goodies at — and on — her door.

The Rock Creek Road woman found several smashed cupcakes on her porch and front door. She's not sure who the culprit was and said there was no damage. She simply wanted police to document the incident.

Acorns falling, not BB gunshots
A woman told police that she wanted to make a complaint about someone shooting BBs at her home in the 1400 block of Orchard Grove Avenue at around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 4. Officers determined that it was likely falling acorns causing the noises she was hearing — not BB gunshots.

SUSPICIOUS SITUATION, SOUTHPARK CENTER: A Columbia Station man was trying to spread the gospel a little too overtly at approximately 1:30 p.m. Oct. 2.
A person reported that the man was trying to open car doors at SouthPark Mall. Turns out the man was only trying to put religious literature on the cars. He was advised not to do that.

heartbeating

So some conversations had last night, between laughter and plumbing the serious depths, made me think and ponder, this theme over the past few weeks, upon observing the trickles of partisan insanity, of seeing the more close-to-home troubles in a world that brushes up against my own so frequently but yet that I am not a part of, trying to see beyond the surface, to see the humanity and the hurt beneath such externals, so easy to judge and sometimes justifiably, and then to ponder a God who hung out with the lostest of lost souls that I find it hard to even look in the eye.

There are kids in my world where I've never met the parents, or I know who the parents are and see the fronts of respectability that fail to mask the damage done by hard drugs and hard living. It's hard for me to not get angry when I deal with these adults who don't let their children be children, to see kids who've never learned to read cop an attitude to hide the shame, who don't have crayons at home but the TV's always on, who don't know where their children are and are too busy working a corner or scoring another hit to care.

 I've never walked in another's shoes and should not presume to condemn, this continual re-evaluation of attitudes dredges things I'd rather not see, that pharasaical attitude of I've-got-my-shit-together-why-can't-you instead of let me walk beside you. I can't stand by necessarily, and last night we talked, we grieved, we raged and laughed, and pondered and planned. There's no guarantee that you can help pull someone out, but it's better to try than to turn away. We may not have widows in our world but we have women who are alone, not so much orphans as much as those who might as well be, and fatherlessness at this point is assumed. If this is who God loves, there's no way I can't too.

eremita

It's been a hermiting weekend, with a quick interlude of funeral procedures assuaged by hiking among the ledges with a fellow traveler when the weather was beautiful. Something so peaceful about being immersed in a landscape of epically giant sandstone rocks pockmarked and cavitied, with undulating greens and reds, hosting ferns.

No texting, the minimal of phone conversations, no epic plans, even church was just the most minimal of social interaction, I had nothing to say, really and a chance to retreat was beautiful, good, and needed to step back and examine.  I have a whole day tomorrow that's a blank slate and that's wonderful. My sleep has been like the dead. We don't have to talk about politics for a few days, these social obligations can be deferred, it feels good to be alone and untethered, but knowing there's a loving encircling should I need to reach out. A CD player full of autumnal tunes. I don't need much these days.

choose your own religion

I'm sure in that long line of folks waiting to see a very important person who doesn't speak until late this afternoon but they've been here since before sunrise in a show of devotion and loyalty and wanting to be close to power. It's depressing the hell out of me, not just for party lines, but for the sheer absurdity of expecting so much life fulfillment out of any mere mortal.

There would be some who'd have some choice words for my superstitions and herd mentality, and they'll quote Dawkins and Hitchens or Degrasse Tyson and lump me in with those folks who cling to guns and religion even though I don't trust myself enough to own a gun. And yes I know there's nuttery in my worldview that's a hard thing to reconcile with. If anyone's honest with themselves, they'll see it in their own too.

But hell we're all a bunch of herds and sheep aren't we? We humans are hardwired to follow something or other, and that translates into organized religion, or devotion to a musical subculture or otherwise, or going to every game of your favorite team, wearing the colors and chanting, and politics is totally a religion too. Suspension of disbelief, denial of inconvenient facts, tribalism of us against them that rarely holds water when picked apart. Simplistic readings of history that fail to stand up under scrutiny. It's hard to operate on a binary anymore. I'm agnostic in all things except God, I guess. Somehow trying to follow these principles of loving one's God and neighbor have left me far afield of any political party and into territory closer to this than anything else. . 

Loving one's God means it's hard to put my hope in any candidate or party or particular cultural way of life, with one's heart, soul, mind and strength involved, it's constant and constantly fighting the mindlessness that comes from parroting platitudes without real thought. Loving one's neighbor means trying to not be a jerk to the people I deal with on a daily basis, and attempting to be conscientious as much as possible with daily life decisions, remembering that it's not just me and my comforts that are paramount. I would venture to say that mindlessly droning the hell out of the third world is not very loving. To seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly is simple enough on paper, hard as hell in real life. I guess it never ends.

best of the blotter: kids, guns, polka...

SUSPICION, ORCHARD GROVE AVENUE: A woman noticed a group of children playing in front of her home Sept. 30. She told police that one of the boys seemed to be holding a handgun.
Officers later determined it was a toy gun. They advised him and his parents about the complaint.

COMPLAINT, MADISON AVENUE: Officers spoke with a group of children who had been swearing at the park and told them to leave Sept. 29.

COMPLAINT, MADISON AVENUE: Police responded to reports of children hiding in trees and throwing acorns at passing cars. They surveyed the trees near Rosewood Park, but found no children.

COMPLAINT, THOREAU ROAD: Channeling their inner samurai, two teenagers spent the afternoon Sept. 30 running around with Japanese swords, chopping the limbs of trees.
Their games caught the attention of a nearby resident, who thought Japanese swords might be a bit dangerous.
An officer spoke with the boys and explained that they should probably pick up a new hobby, at least when on city streets.

BURGLARY, CHESTNUT DRIVE: A homeowner told police Sep. 29 somebody entered his unlocked home and stole a chainsaw and a television.

DISTURBANCE, MAPLEWOOD ROAD: Officers responded to Arbor Court apartments around 11 p.m. Dept. 21 for a report of people screaming and yelling obscenities. They told officers they were playing an intense word game. They were told to keep it down. 

EXPLOSIVES, LINDEN LANE: A woman said Sept. 24 she found a box of what she was told were training hand grenades and wanted to turn them in to be destroyed. The Suburban Police Anti-crime Network bomb squad was called to remove the grenades, which were believed to be fake, but the fuses were live.

SUSPICIOUS PERSON, MAYFIELD ROAD: A woman was seen in a car at BP around 11 a.m. Sept. 23 with a butcher knife. She told officers she was going to use it to prepare lunch after she went grocery shopping. A man who was with her, said he was not concerned for his safety but she was asked to secure the knife anyhow.

BULLETS AT BEST BUY 
Someone left bullets at Best Buy Sept. 29, a report said.
The store manager asked police to take the 9mm Rueger magazine with six bullets.
Twice in recent months, guns have been left behind in restrooms -- once in Walmart in August, and the other a week later at Panera.

Polka Party
Residents on Sassafras Drive called police about 10:30 a.m. Sept. 29 about loud polka music.
Police followed the music to a nearby home where residents were getting ready for a Serbian wedding.
The music was "extremely loud," a report said, and police advised the residents they would be cited if officers had to return.

octobering

A baseball game the night before last with the homie on the next street over, the guy behind us looked and sounded like James Brown with his peanut gallery cheers. GO ON HIT IT NOW! UNH! THAT'S RIGHT BABY! YOU GOT IT NOW. GET HIM OUT NOW! OH YEAH! YOU KNOW HOW IT IS! ALL RIGHT!

I was reduced to giggles as my inner ear conjured up a tight rhythm section cold-sweating into oblivion. We were in the swank seats with the oodles of free food, but it felt like the cheap seats with the inebriated unabashed fanfolk, and there were no complaints from yours truly.And surprisingly, we won, so yay.

I didn't watch the debate last night, didn't get any writing of merit done, did spend a lot on car repairs, which was expected given the creaks in the body, had dinner with the sister and played with the little dude who can now ride piggyback if I hold his ankles as he crows and giggles, expressed snark with bro-in-law, hung out with the Queen of the Bondo, came home.

Nothing new under the sun, not looking forward to the circus that will be going on tomorrow, can't wait for the goon squads to get all this over with. Meanwhile, like the true Clevelandian, it's time to chortle at boomers complaining about That Rap Music and why their favorite classic rock bands from the 1970's are criminally overlooked. The Rock Hall's a waste of time and perfectly good space along the lakefront, so I've got no emotional feelings on any of it, especially since such specifications of rockingness don't include the Bad Brains or Iron Maiden.

Still haven't churned out any schlock for writing class, gritting my teeth through the Roman Empire because it could be interesting as hell but it's now a steppingstone of facts you should know as you climb the corporate ladder. Whatever to that. Whatever to whatever happened last night at the debates. No one's going to talk about drones or kids in Yemen or unlawful detainment or holding rich scumbags accountable. Still getting the lesser-of-two-evils lecture from well-meaning Dems who say that he just needs more time to fix the mess. Remember when people said that about Bush II? I do. Look how that worked out.


Anyways, I'll shut the hell up. here's some tunes.