Mack

Last night I was at the library until it closed at 9:00. There weren't too many people around at that point, and so as I was walking to my car I overheard a man growling out loud about the cold. He was swearing and cursing pretty loud, and when I turned to look at him I saw he was homeless and was carrying a ton of bags and other doo-dads. Feeling sorry for him I kept walking to my car, and offering him up some Hail Marys I started driving back to my place.

I want to digress here for moment. Yesterday as I told this story to another friend, I got yelled at "what good is that going to do." Well it might not be much but the fact that I was going to take some time to turn off the radio and offer some prayers for the guy is certainly better than the alternative. And it is a bit frustrating to here another Christian complain about it. I could perfectly understand an atheist making that argument, but to here another Christian moan about the insignificance of prayer is terrible. I understand physical concrete actions are probably best, but when that option is not available prayer must be better than absolutely nothing at all.

But this was also not a case where physical concrete actions were not available. I had plenty of things I could do, and so after driving for a couple minutes and thinking about my warm luxury car and my palace on the pond that I was heading to, I turned the car and sought after that guy. I found him approaching downtown, and pulled into the parking lot of a nearby bar that he was going to be walking by. As fortune would have it, he actually turned into the bars parking lot. I thought at first that he was going to go inside but instead he kept walking towards the back of the parking lot. At this point he was on the driver's side of my car and I rolled down my window. I could here him mumbling about maybe being able to find some money in the dumpster that was just a short distance away. I said to him, "Sir, do you have a shelter to go to tonight?" "No." "Would you like me to take you to a motel?" "I don't have the money." "Yes, would you like me to get you a room at a motel?" "Oh, I'd really appreciate it. The cold has withered my left hand from hypothermia." "Well then hop on in."

This was a bit easier said than done. He had a ton of stuff he was carrying on him, and I had stuff in the front seat which needed to be moved. I didn't want him sitting behind me, because I've seen to many movies of drivers getting strangled from behind with shoe lace or some other lacy object. But I got him in and we proceeded towards the hotels. I noticed he was much more polite in person than from what I heard when he was talking under his breath. By that I mean he wasn't swearing like he had Tourette's anymore. And he also didn't smell which was nice. His name is Mack. And Mack would not stop talking. He basically spoke when spoken to, but he had a lot to say all at once if that makes sense. I was trying my best to pay attention, but I was also trying to think of where I was going to take him, deciding how to deal with the possibility that wherever I took him might not accept him, and of course keeping an eye out for any unfavorable behaviors such as pulling out a knife.

From what I heard, basically his entire family is dead. His Mom died, his Dad was killed(?), his Uncle was killed in a bar fight, his sister died of cancer, and his wife died (of an illness?). He has a son but I couldn't figure out that his situation.

I wound up taking him to La Quinta Inn. This got us quite a few looks but the help was polite and got us a room. I probably should have paid in cash, but I didn't want to start pulling out fifties in front of the guy so I paid with a credit card. As we walked to his room I asked him to please not destroy the place in the night since I would be billed for it. He said he doesn't like a lot of commotion and would be quiet.

When we got to his room he started shedding all those bags and doo-dads and the coat. Then I saw he was much thinner than he first looked. His arms and legs were thin. He had sort of long hair, a pretty length beard, and finger nails about an inch or two long. It makes me wonder how he got his gloves on, which were too thin for the weather. I shook his hand, wished him a good night, left $3 for a bus ride back into town, and went on my way.

First thing this morning I drove back to La Quinta and asked the lady at the front desk to let me know when room 158 was checked that everything was fine and no additional bills would be necessary. She asked whether Mack knew when he was supposed to leave, and I said I hope so. It wasn't meant to be a continual thing. She said she'd call. Well she didn't call, so I called back around 2:30 and I got word that when they went in to clean the room, Mack had already gone and the room was fine.

Today I was back at the library and I saw Mack again. I walked up and asked how the room was. He said he had difficulty getting to sleep because it had been so long since he had a warm place to sleep. But once he got to sleep he slept like the dead. I said I was glad to hear it and went on my way.

We do have shelters here in town. I should really learn where they are at. I've even made sandwiches before for them, but I never bothered to drive them over, someone else always did. I could have simply given him directions to the shelter had I known. But at the same time I'm not aware of their policies. There may be time limits to how long you can continue going, or maybe he had gotten in a fight and is no longer allowed back. Picking him up like I did was certainly dangerous, but I figure if I was just considering a week ago about going to Afghanistan to probe IEDs, then I can probably take a guy to a hotel.

Size 6 to 4 Can Be Painful

Growing up I had always been told not to eat a lot of salt. Mom never got too specific, she just said "that's enough." Maybe I had heard it wasn't good for the heart, and then later I think I was told it causes high blood pressure. Well just last week I heard a new thing that salt might cause, kidney stones. My sister decided, after much loving guidance from myself, to go on the Jenny Craig diet. For those of you who aren't familiar with the diet, essentially you weigh yourself, give the contents of your wallet to Jenny, weigh yourself again, and magically your lighter. Depending of course on how much money you had to begin with in your wallet. So that money buys you prepared Jenny meals. And these meals are high in sodium. They aren't the highest ones out there, but they're still not healthy in that department. And my sister had been eating them every day every meal of the day for several months.

Then she started noticing some problems when she needed to use the bathroom. Since I only like to embarass her in person I'll skip the details. At one point things were so messed up down there that she felt it would be prudent to see a doctor. This decision of hers was suggested to her by the worst pain she ever felt in her life at 4 in the morning.

The doctor found she had kidney stones and E coli. A few months went by and nothing really changed. And now we come to the present. After going back to the doctor, she was told the likely cause of her kidney stones was all the Jenny meals. The doctor was actually quite impressed. He said typically he only sees old people who have kidney stones, and it's usually like 1 or 2. She has 4! One of which that was rather large and was causing most of her problems down there.

Today she went into surgery to get the big one removed. The doctor said it was completely embedded in her urethra, and there was no way it was coming out on its own. So he broke it apart and got the big chunks out. The remaining 3 are still in there and hopefully they'll come out on there own.

Fortunately today's surgery went well, and the doctor didn't have to make any new holes in her to get to the kidney stones. The ones God gave her worked just fine. Apparently she's in some serious pain, but Mom's there doing her thing.

Having A Blast

Early last Friday afternoon I received an e-mail request for resumes. Every now and then we'll get requests from different divisions located throughout the company looking for people who might be interested working on some task. While I do have a set job, my managers are open to the possibility that I might find greater satisfaction doing another task for another division.

The job posting is looking for people to perform forensic analysis on IEDs that have been rendered safe. IEDs (improvised explosive devices) are essentially modern landmines and are the cause of a great number of our troops' injuries and deaths. From what I understand, the bomb squads find these IEDs and disarm them. Then they'll be given to me and I'll be tasked with the analysis. Most likely I would be trying to determine who made the IEDs or where they came from. Plus I would be on the look out for any new improvements to the technology that might make them more lethal or harder to detect. This task would be performed 'in theater'. That puts me in Afghanistan. The job is for 6 months, working 12 hours a day 7 days a week. After the first 3 months, I would be given a 2 week vacation. With hazard pay I would probably make a little over 4 times what I would make here for that 6 month period.

On Friday this seemed like a terrific idea. I really want to at least post my resume to see if I'd get accepted. I could always say 'no' if I change my mind. After all it's not like I've got anything major happening for the next 6 months. The task sounds awesome, it's a once in a life time opportunity (and quite possibly the last one if I were to get blowed up), and the pay isn't too shabby either. But ultimately I don't think I could go. It wouldn't be right to put such a great amount of stress on my family. Mom has already said she would prefer if I didn't go. And Mom's not the worrier. Dad is. Right now he's over in Israel doing some work, so I haven't mentioned it to him, but I could imagine his response. The thing is though that about a year ago I was offered work in Iraq. They were perfectly fine with that, even encouraging, but unfortunately Afghanistan is just a bit too rough right now. It's a shame though, I would have had some great blog material for 6 months.

Salsa Not To Eat

This weekend I asked a friend of mine out for salsa dancing. I actually got a yes. Even more amazing, she was actually willing to skip out on some out of town guests for an hour or so to go with me. We were supposed to go around 11:00, and I was going to check in with her at 10 to see if she was still willing to bail on her guests. She didn't pick up at 10. That was a bad sign. At 11 she called me, saying she just got back. She and her guests had gone out to dinner and it took a very long time. In fact they were still out, and she decided to leave them to get back home. By this point, it was quite late and we were too tired to just then be going out. Nevertheless, I still think this turned out pretty well. We did talk for awhile on the phone, but the problem is I didn't think to setup another outing. I haven't decided yet how I want to handle that. My plan for now is to just try asking her again next Friday with the hopes that she'll speak up before then.

Tickers

Today is Financial Friday. Earlier this week Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway B split for 50:1. It was trading around $3,400 and each of those shares was split into about 50 new shares around $70. There are two main stocks maintained by Berkshire Hathaway. B and A. B has always been the cheaper of the two, with A trading in the low hundred thousand dollar range. A has never split, and over the decades has become quite profitable which is why it trades for such a high price. Most of us will likely never be able to dream of even owning one share of A. B was also not exactly affordable for many of us. But this recent split made it much more reasonable and I ended up buying some shares yesterday.

The idea behind the split, according to the press, was really due to a bit of charity by Mr. Buffet. Recently he bought Burlington Northern, the nation's largest railroad operator. In order to give the employees a chance at owning some company stock the members of the board in charge of the stock approved of the split.

What's interesting is why Mr. Buffet decided to buy the railroad at all. He called it "an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States." I think that's a bit rosy. In reality he's probably waging on the price of fuel. Oil isn't getting any cheaper. And I'm pretty sure automotive sales in China just passed us, with them becoming the largest buying market in the world. What this means is that the cost of fuel is going to increase. It makes sense, there's only so much fuel out there and it's not going to last forever. But as the cost of fuel increases, so will the cost to ship products. So things shipped by trucks and airplanes are going to see their prices increased. As a result this will make railroads more lucrative because of the cheaper shipping rates that they offer.

After I bought the shares, at first things were great. The stock rose about 75 cents per share in a short time. My other stocks were doing fantastic too, possibly being fueled by Scott Brown winning the Senate seat in Massachusetts. But then things took a turn. Yesterday afternoon President Obama decided to attack the banks, and just like that I am now down over $400 on the market. For the first time in over a year I had actually been in the clear and was up a few hundred dollars. But I guess if things can't be good on Main Street, the government has decided things shouldn't be good on Wall Street either. Sigh, now I'm just losing twice.

Dealing With Rejection

A possible by-product of our relativistic culture is that people have lost all sense of the truly beautiful. I suppose it's true to an extent that 'beauty lies in the eye of the beholder', but for example, while you may not particularly care for one type of flower, surely there's at least one you can appreciate.

Music and art are other such categories. How anyone could possibly look upon the fresco's of the Sistine Chapel and not be filled with awe is beyond me. Foods too have the universal ability to be fondly viewed by all.

All of us have felt that need within us to share those things we find truly beautiful with others. But now in this silly culture we live in, some of us may feel it would be impolite or intrusive to share our joy with others. Not only might not all appreciate what we are so fond of, but they might be downright offended by it. And the result of this, is that the joy we have built up inside of us is diminished and saddened. Only in this crazy culture could something that brings tears of joy at the same time bring us heartache.

So, I am quite positive that it is due to this relativistic culture that can no longer even appreciate the beautiful, that I was rejected from that new site I joined. Either I am not beautiful and I am deluding myself, or everyone of the opposite sex on that site is wrong. Well considering that this site has already established my sensationalism in all aspects of life, I have to conclude that girls simply do not know a good thing when it's sitting right in front of them.

Access Pending

Yesterday I said I was going to sign up on the new more selective website to see what it's all about. After I wrote the post I went ahead and created an account. It's interesting, during the evaluation process, you have full access to the site. So with that in mind I looked around.

The site is essentially Facebook. You can friend people, join groups and discussions. It's made to look very futuristic and there are some interesting features about the site that I wished others made use of. It's like the site is it's own small web browser.

Since the site is so new, there isn't a whole lot of people that have joined. For example, apparently I'm the first one to have signed up where I live. And this site shouldn't be confused with a dating site. It isn't set up for that, or at least not in any meaningful way. The only personal question the site asks about you is whether or not you smoke. The site does allow you to type up some stuff about you, but I've found most people do not bother. Which makes this site seem more like a test ground for people seeing if they can even get accepted rather than a seriously considered area for meeting new people.

The people themselves are all right. Only a few are real knockouts. The most are no different than what you're going to find on the other sites, with the exception that there are indeed no people who are devoid of any redeeming physical qualities.

I still have yet to be officially accepted. So far one person has rated my profile pic (the one I use for this blog), and she gave it a 5.13. According to my sister that's about right, perhaps a bit generous, as I'm somewhere between a 4.5 and a 5.