The Little Girl Isn’t Dead

This is a continuation of my last post, The Little Girl is Dead.

While on our short vacation, my mind refused me the opportunity to forget about what was going on at home.  Instead it kept thinking about that phrase that was etched into my mind that night.  I kept running scenarios in my head about my girls; I didn’t like to, but I had to.

I felt bad for everyone who had been affected by this storm, especially the less fortunate ones who lived in that trailer court, right next door to me.  They had lost everything, and probably didn’t have insurance.  There were many children living there, so many that the schools had 2 buses come for pickup and drop off.  We would see them all waiting for the bus in the mornings on our way to work.  I still see their faces, and imagine what they must have went through on that eventful night.

I received two phone calls that Saturday while we were in Michigan, our power had been restored!  It had been out for around 3 and 1/2 days.  We don’t know how many utility poles had to be replaced in total, but it was a large number.

Since I had Internet access, I was always keeping up on the news.  Our township trustee had organized a volunteer day, to help with tree & debris cleanup.  This made all of us happy, and was the first step in putting my heart and soul to ease.  In the end there were a total of 3 volunteer days, but the news that an IU student had disappeared shifted the focus, and the volunteers.

We returned from Michigan on Memorial day, and reality set in.  While I had no damage to my home, we had lost about 10 trees; including our beloved apple tree.  Many of these trees formed a ‘natural’ fence along my property line.  They provided large amounts of shade and oxygen, they were also wrapped in vines.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a “jack of all trades.”  I have had experience in cutting trees since I was about 12, when I helped my then step-dad do just that for a living.

We had already lost our weeping willow tree and a maple tree due to wind and ice storms that occurred earlier in the year, we purchased a chain saw so I could clean them up; I was prepared.  Little did I know how difficult the task would be when vines were involved.  This was a task I couldn’t handle, this task needed a quantity of experience people.

We decided to get estimates from tree-trimming businesses.  I called around 5 companies, only one showed up and gave me an estimate.  It was more expensive than we wanted to pay, and under our homeowners insurance deductible.  I wasn’t going to feel at ease until this was taken care of; I was literally stuck between a bunch of trees and a hard place.

I turned to our township trustee’s office.  I called them and asked for assistance, but let them know that I should be placed on the bottom of their list.  I let them know that it was simply downed trees that needed to be cleaned up, there was no damage to my home and that it shouldn’t be a priority.  While we could have paid for the cleanup; it would have presented a financial burden that we might have not recovered from.

A few days go by and as I arrived home from class an Mennonite looking fellow was at my house.  He said he was surveying what needed to be done; he was assembling a crew.  The next day when I arrived home, the trees were almost cleaned up!  It was a group of boys and a man.  At the time I presumed they were Mennonite, since they used technology.  It turns out I was wrong; it was the Worthington Amish Youth Group.  I thanked each one of them personally, and asked if they needed anything at all.  They requested some water, which I promptly fetched and then they went about their business.

With all the property damage and the trailer court in ruins, I was blown away that they decided to help ME.  My whole family is in their debt and are working on a way to pay it forward and show them how much we appreciate what they’ve done for us.

After they finished cleaning up the trees, a larger group, including women went over to the trailer court and assisted cleanup.

The effects of this tornado will be felt and seen for many years to come.  Not just from the people (like me) who live where it happened, but by the thousands of travellers that take that section of Highway 45.  I went through many years of emotional issues as a child, which I thought had toughened me mentally.  I learned the hard way that I was wrong.

While we are mainly healed from this event, our souls will never forget it.  That storm took something from me.  Even though I don’t exactly know what “it” is, I feel incomplete inside.  I don’t know how to move on from this experience.  Writing this has certainly helped.

 

Feel Like a Number

While I am used to feeling like a number in our quantity over quality soceity, something just happened that I have to share.

I attend Ivy Tech Community College, and have since 1999 off and on.  In that time they have exponentially grown to become the school with the largest enrollment in the state of Indiana, with currently over 110,000 students enrolled.  As the state has lost it’s large manufacturing base of employment, people (like me) have went to school to help us find new careers.

Over the past couple of years, communications from the school have went downhill as far as information goes.  Most communications are either a weekly job or volunteer posting, informational updates, or the one that really puts a thorn in my side, “Pick Ivy Tech.”  Essentially an advertisment sent to students.  Why are they wasting money sending letters and emails to people already enrolled asking them to pick Ivy Tech?  Haven’t they already?

This last incident is the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”  The Bloomington campus has outgrown it’s space, and until they can build additions they have leased annex campuses.  While this can be great for situations such as this one, it can also be a nightmare.  The Liberty Drive campus does not have adequate parking.  While it is a pain, I’m not complaining.  I work at IU where parking is sometimes not even a possibility.

This email was sent to all Bloomington students:

Additional Parking Options for Liberty Drive:

1. Park across the street from the Liberty Drive campus. The spaces
reserved for Ivy Tech students are located in the parking lot previously
occupied by the MCL Cafeteria; across the street and just south of the
Liberty campus.

2. Park at the main campus and take the Rural Transit shuttle to the
Liberty Drive campus.

Click the link below to download the Rural Transit schedule:
http://services.bloomington.ivytech.edu/media/pdf/academics/IvyTechBus.pdf

For more information about Rural Transit, go to:
http://www.ivytech.edu/bloomington/about/shuttle.html

While these options are helpful, they create equal if not larger problems.  For those of you who know the area, Liberty Drive is a busy road that has many large businesses on it, and it is a major thoroughfare for the west side of Bloomington.  Also crossing a 4 lane road is a dangerous affair, as a student in high school I remember students being severely injured and even killed on occasion trying to do the same thing to get lunch.  Due to this, MCCSC closed their campuses and upgraded their cafeterias.  There is no intersection near that has a crosswalk, and the road curves at this point as well making visibility for the drivers an issue as well.

I felt a response was necessary to highlight these potentially fatal flaws.  While hindsight is 20/20, I could have left a couple paragraphs and a few remarks out.  I was mainly trying to give them constructive criticism, and point out alternatives.

Here is my response:

While the additional options you have listed are helpful, please let me remind you of the hazards and reasons why these options are not feasible.

1.  Park at MCL.  While there is plenty of parking at that location, and in the scope of things, close, it is also very hazardous.  It is hazardous for the same reasons why Bloomington High School South closed it campus.  People were hurt and died.  It is dangerous for people to cross 4 lanes of traffic at any time on that road, let alone rush hour.  I hope your recommendation does not lead to serious injuries or death for anyone.

2.  Park at the Main Campus and take the Rural Transit.  While this option might be okay for full-time students, but for people like me who work full time and take classes when they can, this is impossible.  I can barely make it to class on time, let alone wait for a bus that comes once or twice an hour.

My wife brought up a great idea that would really ease the parking situation at liberty drive.  Perhaps you could lease (through your agreement with IU) one of their buses to use as a shuttle during the hours when it is needed most.  This dedicated shuttle would be a better option than the rural transit, and make the students really feel like they are cared for.

I for one am tired of the “stupidity” in the communications from this school.  The email you sent was “the straw that broke the camels back” for me.  I don’t need pointless communication, I need real communication.

While this may not be your area, I must say the emails that say “choose Ivy-Tech” are pointless when I’m already attending.  What am I going to do?  Move to another state to attend a community college?

Respectively,

Lee Lawmaster

As I stated, hindsight is 20/20.  Some of my comments were a  mistake, but I was emotionally charged at the time.  I would send an apology for some of my remarks, but as you are about to see it would only make the situation worse.  I sent this email to the person who sent it, and I CC’d the Chancellor of the Bloomington Campus.  I thought it seemed worthy of skipping any chain of command due to the safety issues involved.

Here is the response from the Chancellor:

Lew: You copied me, so let me respond.  Your message was signed “respectively” and I assume you meant “respectfully”. It was neither. If parking is an insurmountable problem for you, I believe a full tuition refund is still available to you through Friday.  Contact Jennie Vaughan in students affairs and she will assist you with your withdrawal.  This concludes responses from campus staff to you on “stupidity” of “pointless” communication on this matter.
————————–
Please excuse any spelling errors.  This message was sent from my PDA.

Whoa!  From everything I’ve heard about this guy, he’s the nicest guy you’d know.  I didn’t mention having a problem parking.

In the end I said some things I shouldn’t have.  I do realize that.  Although you would think a person in that position would see through that and see the serious safety issues with their plan.  Since Ivy Tech has a monopoly on 2 year degrees in Indiana, I don’t have a choice of seeking another institution for education that is affordable.  I know from talking to my fellow students that communications with the school are sub par though.  I guess they just don’t want to listen.

I’ve learned where I don’t want my children to go when they reach college age.

One other note:  I received a mailing yesterday, I made the Dean’s list for the Summer semester of 2009.  While that’s great, I think this overshadows anything I could accomplish at this school.

Ban the Ban

Today on the Herald-Times website there has been a serious discussion regarding IU’s smoking ban which went into effect last January.  It started with a reporter searching the campus for smokers and placing updates on their website, she then spoke with administrators and wrote a full article.

The ban has not been enforced in any way, and as a smoker it bothers me on fundamental levels.  As an employee I could be terminated for violating this policy (which I try very carefully not to), while students face very slight (if any) consequences.

In my opinion, this smoking ban is going to be just like the ban on alcohol on IU’s campus, not spoken about.  I was blown away to actually find out that alcohol is actually permitted on campus for university events if students or others under the age of 21 are not going to be in attendance.

The online discussion on the Herald-Times website opened my eyes up to a few things that I hadn’t known before, and I thought I would pass those along to everyone out there.

All of these “smoking bans” that we see today can trace their roots back to 1930’s Germany.  Read here for more information.  It’s really shocking to me, and confirms my ideas about the subject since day one.

Did you know that over a lifetime, medical costs for obese and average people are more than that of smokers?  Read here for the article.  This information “threw a bucket of cold water” into what everyone thought.  I’m a firm believer that we have been sold on the idea that smoking is “more” unhealthy than it really is.  I’m not trying to say that there are no health risks – I’m just saying as a country I think we’ve been duped.

These two articles really opened my eyes regarding this issue that has been raging in this town for almost 15 years now.

I have been a smoker for more than half of my 28 years on this earth.  I know it’s not the healthiest of things to do, but I do it anyway.  I’ve taken chantix, nicoderm and the commit lozenges to try to quit.  The reason I have not succeeded in quitting is because smoking is part of who I am.  Without it I do not feel like myself, while that is “normal,” I don’t like feeling that way.

While I know it is a chemical addiction just like drugs and alcohol are, that does not bother me.  I have other addictions that I think are worse.  To name one, it’s my endless addiction to technology.

That’s a whole other story that I’ll leave for another time.

Good Drinkx, Good Conversation

After 3 years of e-mailing, sending packages and working on what has become a major project in my life, Editor B and I finally met.

He and his family evacuated from hurricane Gustav.  When their respective schools decided to close until Monday, they decided to head back to Btown.

He sent a twitter update inviting all to Upland at 8pm, also sending me an email asking I attend.  I had a busy day, but I wouldn’t miss this for anything in the world.  I didn’t want to miss this chance.  The last time we tried to meet, tornado warnings and a worried wife kept us from meeting.  B was heading back to New Orleans the next morning, on the long road home to rebuild their home and New Orleans after Katrina.

When I first arrived on the scene, I was almost too afraid to enter.  Upland was severely crowded, something I had never seen before.  People were parking up and down the entire block.  I was lucky and got a parking spot right next to the door.

After waiting a while in the standing room only crowd, I introduced myself.  H-T columnist Mike Leonard and his wife were there as well, then the interesting Paul Smedberg arrived.  We finally got a table a few minutes later.  Paul reminds me of a comic, but I can’t remember his name at the moment.

It was nice to meet Mike, as I’ve emailed him a few times and I’m sure he thought I was some local crazy of some sort.

I was amazed at the subjects of conversation, ranging from books to the lack of economic prosperity in this town.  We went on to talk about how children change your life (not in a bad way B), to the founding ideas of the Green party (which I didn’t really understand until last night).

Back to the subject at hand, It was a pleasure to finally meet you B.  You’re everything and more that I had expected you to be.  Most conversations I have are intellectually lacking, last night was a much needed shot to the brain.

Hopefully I can make the trip down to New Orleans sometime soon. 

The Cat is Out

Last week I sent an email to the entire ROX blogging crew, asking if they liked apples.

I was very surprised as to the response I got.

B is very curious about what my plans are, and even told me about a particular type of apple he enjoys.

MF told me that she isn’t particularly an apple person, but I have another idea which she might enjoy just as much.

J and Kelly both told me that they love apples and can’t wait to see what they shall receive.

I can’t hold this little secret any longer, so the cat is out of the bag folks’.

This is my apple tree.  When we first moved into our home, it looked like an overgrown bush.  With much trimming, I’ve turned it into a “happy tree” as I like to call it.  We’ve only had one harvest due to an ice storm last February.  My mother-in-law came and took all of those apples, which I didn’t mind.

We’ve been checking the apples every week to see if they are ripe.  They aren’t yet, but once they are your packages will be in the mail.

This year is a different story, as I want my ROX family to enjoy the fruits of my trees’ labor as well.  All of you have been like a family to me, in one way or another.  This is the least I can do to thank yall.

I don’t know the type of apple that grows from this particular apple tree.  They are green, medium to small sized, and quite tart.  They are best used for baking purposes.  My thought, send everyone a “apple crisp in a box kit!”

I also plan on sending Kelly and MF ROX Season Zero sets as well.

It bothers me that my search for help with this heat damage problem has led me nowhere.  Sometimes you have to find your own solution to problems, which is what I’m working on.  With the help of Photoshop for Video, I have learned a few things.  I hope to soon have the skills to correct this damage, and continue on my way of saving this beloved show for generations to come.

This show enlightened me in those key teen years.  It wasn’t about the drinkx, or the drugz, it was about keeping your mind open to new and unusual things.  Something that is still lacking in society today.  If I hadn’t stumbled upon J&B on the ROX playing on BCAT oh so many years ago, I very well could be in prison or dead by now.  Many who know me well, know that my life has been nothing but a story of hardship and overcoming seemingly impossible hurdles.  It will all be in my book.

I know I’m repeating myself, but this is the least I can do to thank everyone who participated in the show, whether as an active participant, or as a passive person who was just there when the camera was rolling.

I came into this as merely a fan, but I’m treated as if I’m a family member.  Words cannot describe how amazing that feels.

It’s Been One Hell of a Century

This year marks the centennial birthday for Monroe County’s beautiful courthouse.  It is the third one the county has had in it’s history.

Click here to see an interesting and informative slide-show with commentary, published by the Herald-Times.

Even though it isn’t used as a “courthouse” anymore, many important offices are housed there and important county meetings still take place there.

Maybe B Started Something?

It all started with this picture…

 
Bomb Wal-Mart
Originally uploaded by Editor B.

Editor B shooting footage of people at a peace rally, I believe, with a piece of paper attached to his camera with the question, “Bomb Wal-Mart?”

Today somebody took that thought provoking question one step further and called in a bomb threat to the local Wal-Mart.  The first thing that came to my mind was the picture above.

The matter was taken very seriously, and the place was evacuated.  The employees were sent to the Murphy USA gas station nearby (good place to go when there is a possible bomb).  The store has now been closed for almost 6 hours, with word that it will re-open “within the hour.”

“Lunch Hour Shopper” left a comment on the Herald-Times website that I found quite interesting.  It states that, “I was there when it happened. They came over the intercom and said “attention all associates and customers, we have a code blue. thank you” and that was it! Like we all know what a code blue is.  Doesn’t that mean a sale at KMart! Some employees just left their cash registers with customers standing there. Then some other associates started telling people to leave.”

So I take it that it’s Wal-Mart’s policy to not give a damn about their customers during a emergency situation.

As a Wal-Mart shopper (I’m not a fan, just doing what I gotta do.) it seems like a good thing to do with the weak US economy today.  Wal-Mart is now nothing more than the quickest way to get to China or in some cases Vietnam.

No I don’t think it’s B’s fault, but that question brings up very serious philosophical questions.  Especially in financially trying times like these.

Continue reading “Maybe B Started Something?”

Need A Paper?

Then I’m your man, at least on the far westside of Bloomington.

I officially became a carrier for the Herald-Times today.

Rachel and I went on the route, and we had a few hiccups but it went pretty smooth.

200 papers, 2 hours.

With high gas prices, you would think that it would be a losing situation, but it’s not.  The route is only 26 miles, and I can deduct that expense on my taxes next year.

I’m eventually going to buy a beater of a car and use it.  Until then, I think I’m going to use my truck.  This morning we learned that Rachel’s car is just a wee bit small.

Opportunity or Not?

While making dinner this evening, I received a phone call.  The phone was ringing like crazy today, but this one was way out of left field.

It was the Herald-Times, asking me if I was interested in becoming a paper carrier.  I had sent them my resume about a month ago when a carrier position opened up.  It just happens that the carrier for “my” area quit.

I’ve agreed to go on a “test” run tomorrow morning, bright and early at 4:15.

This is something that I would love to do, but a 7 day a week commitment is tough for a young individual like myself.  We occasionally spend the night at friends and family members homes.  I wouldn’t want to be grounded.

In other job seeking news, I had an interview at the VA clinic in town, and got another call for an interview with what seems to be a general contracting company in town.

The interview at the VA clinic went well.  It’s a position in their front office, I’m just worried that my lack of experience in a medical office setting puts me at a disadvantage.

It would definitely be exciting to work for a general contractor again, but my back isn’t what it used to be.

Due to these concerns, I’m giving this some serious consideration.

I don’t want to work for KFC again, anything but fast food.