Everybody walk your body, Everybody walk! - The Time

Mom and I went for a walk Wednesday night around the neighborhood. I forgot how many cool older homes that are right next to where I live. People are taking care of the homes which is cool and we have a good neighborhood association. I would like to see more of the absentee landlords leave but, until I can win the lottery I have to put up with them.
It's nice to be reminded that the "Deadly Northside" is still a place of beauty and a place where people care regardless of how the media portrays the "hood".
Yes, there are people that make it bad and Yes, you can go two blocks one way and find crappy houses and two blocks the other and find beautiful landscaping, gardens and boulevard plantings. It's the city, it's real and it's my home.
It's too bad you don't hear about the neighbors coming together to clean things up every year, it sucks you don't see me or the other neighbors cleaning up the streets as we clean our yards or walk our dogs. It's too bad you don't see people coming together regardless of race to make sure the park renovation is what we want. It's too bad you don't see the families having a picnic in our newly finished park almost every night this summer and picking up after themselves and making sure it's just as clean as it was when they found it.
I will admit there are spots I don't go into because I know it to be "rough", but these places are pockets and do not represent the whole. I'm ranting. Sorry. Back to the walk.
Ok, I found the lost train.......
When we first moved to the neighborhood everything was green. We had a huge green canopy from the Elm trees that made everything look warm and forest like. Then the Dutch Elm disease set in and the City cut down most of the big trees and planted new ones. It's taken 20 something years but the canopy is finally returning. It looks really nice. Mom enjoyed the walk. It was a good day. I have fun making her laugh and just being silly.

Be Good - Rufus D. Pearson Jr.
Be good to your momma
Love her
Be good to your momma
Hug her
Be good to your momma
Remember, no matter how big you get
She can still stand on a chair and knock you out
Be good to your momma

An excerpt from the collected musings of Rufus D. Pearson Jr's "Woman! Where is My Hat!?!"

BTW...
The blogger has messed with me again. Back when I went to NYC it ate my posting and this week it gave me an error message saying that it couldn't post the entry that I tried to post. So Wednesday I fixed what it said and posted the blog again. So I had two somewhat identical posts. I changed a few words from Monday to Wednesday to protect the innocent.

Mid-week Meanderings

Help!! My seatbelt is eating my face!
I was driving in to work Monday morning. When I am at the stop lights I tend to look around me and see who else is driving to wherever.
This morning I looked behind me and there was a man of considerable size with the seatbelt across his face. It was going from left to right and squished his face into a weird smile. His face was becoming redder the longer this went on.
He attempted to lean forward towards the glove box and the seatbelt would give him no quarter. It really looked like something on a hidden camera show. I was hoping to get Punk’d or have my ride Pimp’d but no camera crews came rushing out and the light changed. He finally got the seatbelt to the right spot after driving for a bit. What the heck was he doing? I love the things we people do. Life is the best situation comedy.

Paranoimia, Paranoimia – See Art Of Noise
Thanks to the state of the world today I fell into the “Be Ever Vigilant” trap. I was leaving the ramp and walked past a Beemer with the gas cap open and looking really weird. There was a strap holding the cap on, the gas door was mostly closed, but there was something else that looked like a wire that didn’t belong in the gas area so I let the Ramp Manager know to check it out.
It just seemed odd enough to say something and if I hadn’t I would have felt strange about it all day. I don’t think I am paranoid, but more apt to be alert to things that seem out of place. Last week I went to a movie (I know, big surprise) and I had my work bag/satchel with me. This would not be strange, but as I dug through it looking for the gum I thought I stashed in it, I started thinking about the London bombings and how the eyewitnesses said one of the bombers was looking through his bag before the explosions took place. I looked over at the guy a few seats away from me to see if he was watching me. He was enjoying the flick, not paying me any mind, but it made me wonder about stuff like that. I will admit that right after 9-11 I was a little on edge as were most people whether they will admit it or not. Being a bit on high alert during the weeks following 9-11, I was a little disturbed by a woman asking a guy to watch her bags while she went to the bathroom during a movie. It was about a month before Christmas and the Mall Of America was a place that was supposedly threatened at one point. It was hard for me to concentrate on the movie until she came back.
I started to think about how people live their day to day lives in countries that have bombings on a fairly regular basis. I can’t believe you would ever get used to it. I guess you have to live, so you do just that. You live.

"Get a f@#$ing job!"
That is what the driver of a car turning a corner yelled at the person with the sign soliciting cash from passers by. It was Saturday, It was stinkin' hot. It made me angry.
It's not that I haven't thought the same at times with less ferocity, but I would never try to debase another human being that way. I really thought the shouter was a coward. It's easy to yell things as you pass by from the safety of your car. It would have been braver to stop and hand the person a sandwich or keep your mouth shut and drive by.
I volunteered at St.Stephen's shelter for men for three years as an overnight volunteer. As an ONV I did a mail call, handed out towels, job duties and hung out. We spent our nights playing cards, talking, watching TV or reading.
During that time I came to understand some things about some of the homeless men there. Some are there because they made bad choices, some for addiction, alcohol and drug, some for mental disabilities and some because they were one paycheck away from the street.
What ever the reason, I never lost sight that each of them was a human being and wanted to be treated as such. The main rule at the shelter was "Respect Everyone"
It was hard to go to the shelter some nights and in the end I eventually burned out. It always serves as a reminder to me that anyone could end up there and things aren't always as bad as they can seem.
I try to think of that when I am whining about things, that my life could be different, I could be on the short end of the stick. I am glad I am not. I believe that everyone going through something tough is in their own private hell, be it larger or smaller than the next person. You just can't give up and you shouldn't ever lose sight that you will get through it.
I don't always give and I don't always act super friendly to people coming up asking for things, but I do remember they are a person. I still see some of the guys from the shelter here and there. Some are doing well. The shelter has advocates that work to help these guys find housing and jobs and check in on them.
All I am trying to say is that remember these folks are people too, no matter what. Don't take any abuse form them either. Don't think I am asking you to like all of them or hug them or anything like that. People struggle in this life for various reasons, why make it any harder than it can already be.

Motto - Langston Hughes

I stay cool, and dig all jive,
That's the way I stay alive.
My motto, as I live and learn, is
Dig and be dug, in return.

An Open Letter to My Fellow (Male) Co-Workers

Dear Fellow (Male) Co-Workers,

It has come to my attention that there are some problems plaguing our facilities. No doubt you have noticed what I am referring to. Our restrooms are becoming the stuff of nightmares. The MN State Fair doesn’t start until the end of next month and yet we are all being subjected to the fairgoer bathroom.

Some of my British friends call going to the restroom “Splashing your Boots”, please do not take this literally. Even though the soles on my shoes are between me and the outside world I still don’t want to stand in your leavings. Nor do I want the person after me to think I have no aim. May I suggest that if you can’t aim, you try sitting down. I hear it’s all the rage in Europe. I will talk about sitting down a little later.

Also, if you could do me a favor and make sure you flush next time. I do not want to flush for you and have your urine mist spray all around me. Sounds pretty anal, but think about it. That cool breeze you feel when you flush is nothing other than mist. Let’s call it a Mister Misty. I could really do without that.

No one has seen a Bigfoot or a Yeti in the city limits for quite some time. So it strikes me as odd that a couple would take the time out of running through the woods, mountains or posing for blurry photos to come to our floor to use the bathroom. It could happen but, I doubt they have the proper badges to get in. This leads me to my next point.

Hair and A$$ dandruff (I borrowed that one from a friend). After you are done reading your book/newspaper, answering your phone, blogging or dropping the kids off at the pool, I beg you. When you look back to see what you left behind, that you also take a moment to look at the toilet seat and give it a quick wipe. I don’t know what you are doing sitting down without a toilet paper shield, that’s your business, but don’t make it mine by leaving Klingons or Cousin It behind on the seat for me to get to know. I think it’s pretty nasty that one might sit down and get up with a butt moustache.

Simple things these are. As Yoda might say. If you are smart enough to create Struts, business objects and dirty V.O.’s, you can make sure each visit to the restroom is an enjoyable one for everyone.

Just a few more simple things:

• One: DO NOT stand right next to your co-worker if there are more than two stalls and there is enough for an empty stall to divide the both of you.
  

• Two: Same goes for the sit down stalls. Nothing worse than a Crap Crowder if there is an empty to divide the two of you.
  

• Three: Courtesy flush. Thanks
  

• Four: WASH YOUR HANDS!! I would be able to save more trees and stop stretching all my shirts if I felt I could use the doorknob knowing that we all did.
  

Thanks for listening.

There are two things that separate us from the animals, One, we stopped flinging our poo a long time ago and two, we have opposable thumbs. – Rufus D. Pearson Jr.

Blistering Heat 1, Me 0

The weather kicked my butt yesterday. I had my first bike ride in a year and I chose what seemed to be the hottest day so far. I was not trying to be macho in the least bit, but I was thinking how bad could it be.
Well, let's prepare for the ride by being out of shape, sleeping about 4 hours of light wake up off and on type sleep the night before and only eating banana for breakfast. Yep, that would about do it. I did drink a ton of water on the ride because of the way I sweat I can easily dehydrate and we don't want that again. I did that in High School during our "Hell Weeks" of 2 a day football practices. It was August and we had just finished some drills. The coach sent us to get water to the North and I decided to walk South. After the coach called my name a few times, I turned towards him, spoke Swahili and collapsed. They rushed out to me and had to carry me over to the water. My legs had curled up underneath me and my arms had turned to jelly. After a while I was fine, but I now make sure I get more than enough water in my system
I was really ok on Saturday's ride until we started doing the inclines about 2 hours into the ride. My bike riding muscles having been neglected for more than a year were telling me in no uncertain terms they were not happy. Plus you add in the sweating like I'm selling sweat for millions and you get tired. You could feel the heat coming up from the sidewalk as you rode along.
I had to stop a few times on the last leg of our ride. My buddies were very accommodating understanding my wishes not to push it too hard under these conditions. Overall, I had a very good time. It was nice to ride along the river from Eagan to downtown St.Paul and circle back along Sheppard road to HWY 55 and back to Eagan. If you are going to ride, please go and get yourself a Twin Cities Bike map. This helped us choose our route back and gave us ideas for another ride. Even better is that they are free and free is good.
I feel pretty lucky today, no cramping, not sore except for the "taint". The "taint" is a little chaffed, which is what I expect every biking season until I build up a "callous". The pros use Udder cream. I may pick a little up.
I figure I will try to get out a little ride tonight when the temp goes down. I built up so much heat yesterday in my core that my forehead was hot to the touch as late as 12:00am.

Bad Boy Having a Party

Luther Vandross passed away today at the age of 54. He had a stroke about 2 years ago and never fully recovered. He is one of my favorite R&B artists. Luther had a string of hits in the 80's and 90's. The title of this blog entry was one of my favorite songs. His music was what we partied to and slow danced to as well, when slowing dancing was in. I would advise checking out his music if you like good Soul/Pop/RnB. I was asked to do senior spotlight's in our high school newspaper and one of the things I said was that I would love to have a voice like Luther. His name is one of those names you just say and people know who you are talking about. He is well worth listening too and will be noted in history as a class act and a great artist. Rest In Peace, Luther