Jeremiah

You Chews #15

"Tonight will be a good night" that is what Alexander says to himself every night as he straightens his cap in the mirror. He is an older man, in his forties; time has done him well with only a small spot of gray behind his right ear to give his age away. For twenty years he has had the same routine he wakes up around dusk, fills his French press, and puts the same Bing Crosby record on the Wurlitzer. He has lived alone in the same small flat since he was twenty years old. He has never been married nor does he have any children, the last of his immediate family died years ago. The closest he ever came to have a meaningful relationship was when he asked out Mary Owens to his senior prom. With all this said he is a well-adjusted man with not an ounce of worry to speak of.He steps out the door every night at promptly at 7:15; the light from the gas street lamps paints the sidewalk with in an orange glow. The night air has crispness, the first of the season, with the moon behind him and the streets before him he sets off. All he wants to do is retire, find a nice little house next to a lake and fish, somewhere up state. Three years that’s all he has left, that what he tells himself.
For the longest time he has cursed his chosen profession, he dreams of the old days when he had no cares in the world, when he felt safe. Most people take for granted that safe feeling, like a pig in a pen not like a chicken in a snake coop. Some people think that “sleeping with one eye open” is just a phrase but no Alex does not fall asleep with his eyes closed he fall asleep with his eyes open. His house is like a fortress with all kinds of booby traps and noisemakers but all of this was still not enough to let him get a good night sleep. When he awakens in the morning it is not with a yawn and a stretch but with a jerk. He pops up out of bed like a jack in the box with his Wather in his hand even before his eyes open, this continues all day while he is home moving his Wather from one room to another, from the bathroom sink, to the stove, to the closet. Most people get burnt out before they put in half the time in the agency that he has. He just hopes that time has not caught up with him, that somehow he will out run this one last stint. He never really liked France it was nice at times but it was never home. His work tonight takes him in the middle of town and gives him time to stop off and have a cup of coffee. There me meets a man he has known his entire career. They sat and chat about the old days before the wall fell and how they are getting along. After a long while Alex and the man part ways but is not the only chance encounter of the night. Later he runs into an entrapanure a man that is a millionaire and has ties to everyone. The next person he passes cross with is an old friend for the agency. Later on he meets a neighbor and talks with him for a while nothing seems out of the ordinary.But some time during his rounds someone slips him polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope, and fatally poisons him. His name was Alexander Litvinenko he was exKGB officer, Britain gave him asylum because he was outspoken about the Kremlin and the new state of Russia. It is yet to be determined who was behind this but I seem to feel that it was Russian President Vladimir Putin, since snitches get stitches and all.Some places, names, and/or events are wrong, some are right you choose.

What I"ve Lernt From #14

When I was young I held the belief that the United States government was a fair and justice institution and its soul purpose was to better the lives of its citizens. As I grew from a wide-eyed child with no hard idea of the world around me, into a cynical individual with a vast knowledge of our global community, I was forced to abandon this idea, that our nations impact on the rest of the world is always fair and just. The one twinkle of hope for me is that with time all the backwoods good old boys that make up our government will die out leaving us then with a fresh start, with politicians that did not grow up in the dark-ages of the twentieth century.For me the government has always seemed a little unattractive. Old people in wool suits doing boring things, they are like your grandparents with dentures and limps, it must smell like Geritol, Ben jay, and old spice in the white house. I wonder how many chairs and couches the pentagon throws out every year due to pee damage. Do you think any of the chief Justice's where depends. To me they are no more then puppeteers their stage the Senate or the capital lawn and their audience are like two year olds, they have to raise their hands to talk, they take cookie breaks, and sit in folding chairs.But this servers a greater good, this is what has to happen every day to get an interstates paved or Indian burial ground protected. Like the flu or phenomena, the people that are most affected by this are the old and the young. The bureaucrats cut school funding and tinker with Medicare, they will put "the fear" in you if you are impressionable, they prey on the impoverished and the underprivileged. As long as there are billions of humans on the earth, so there shall be governing bodies. The sooner we learn these lessons and start to apply them to our everyday lives the better we will be. In the future I would like to see a change in the way this country is ran. Ratifying the constitution on a city, state, and federal level most likely, is the only way it can be done. One hope that I have is that with all the new technology and the Internet that we will become a true democracy and not this have and have not-ocracy. In twenty years, with the Internet, I would like to see the senate disbanded. If we can get eighty percent of the registered voters online why can’t they make all the same dictions that the senate makes? Who knows better what roads need to be paved, the chauffer-ed or the working class. How can people that fly first class or by private plane decide to cut public transportation. Being a good person with a nice demeanor and well adjusted, I would spring at the idea of being put in the position to make decisions that would impact my country. If I were the P-P-President things for us and our world would be better. I can only dream have the day that I can sit back and say, " this country is run fine Mertal". One of my only hopes is that when I leave this world my children will not only be better off but the whole world will be better off. I really hope that some of these ideas will be realized. We could use some thinkers in the White House and not so many wankers. It would be strange for any one to be put in to power, to rule. Think of it, life at the capitol with two-hour lunches, killer parking, immunity, impunity and your own secretary. It would rock. If we could all adopt some of this lifestyle with out turning in to a prune, we would. I know I could use a promotion.

Con #13

There is little guidance I can offer on how to start college effectively, since my entry was fraught with missteps, sidesteps, and back steps. Starting college is processes that that includes tons of paperwork, miles of leg work, and enough worry to last in to your junior year. With all the "goings on around" it is surprising that more people do not fall through the cracks. With lost paper work comes lost ambition and that leads to loss of time or even the loss of a semester. There are ways to avoid all of this but I am just now figuring out how I would do it all over again.
When I decided that it was time for me to go back to school, I started to notice all of these commercial for loan money and commercial that try to trick you in to accepting some kind of loan. I do not know for sure but I, kind of think, that they are trying to scam people. Are the loan companies easier to pay back? Do they have a better interest rate? Should I have investigated them, before hand? These are all questions that I have had since I enrolled. I noticed that on the Black Entertainment Network channel that they have more commercials geared towards college students then all the other channels put together. This might be because U.N.C.F. is trying to get there number up and to justify all the television promotions, that they put out there.First, when enrolling get as much information as possible, read it, learn it, know it, this for me was, just tedious banter going on in circles with no end but, it is information you need to know. If your are lucky you might have some one in your corner of the enrollment ring, like a friend or a friend of a friend, someone that can help guide you through the maze red tape. In my case this was a six-year senior that just added more trouble than he was worth.Most people would think that the easy way out is through the admissions office or the financial aid office. In a perfect office world this would be a true statement but it was not in my case. I have spent the better part of a dozen hours in those office's because I was never told every little thing that I had to do and in what order. Every visit would go the same way, with me getting directions and following them exactly the way they were laid out in front of me, only to find out later that I had been told the wrong thing. It continued on like this for weeks with me being told to go here and then finding out that these people had nothing to do with this and those people had nothing to do with that.If I were a harsh or rash man this would of rubbed me the wrong way but I understand the concept of the easy answer although it gets me every time. The easy answer idea is that when someone asks you something and you just point in some direction and the questioner will mindlessly drown on this way or that. It is also referred to as the wild goose formula for riding yourself of some unwanted attention or situation. This can also be used on yourself, like when you white lie yourself out of a family event like a trip to Branson, Missouri.So in summery do not look to the desk help as help, look at them as secretaries whom make appointments with people that can answer your questions, people that can help. This is the only way to avoid the pointless onslot of information from someone that is not qualified to dispense it. We can all take a lesson from this and it is that you should not take information to heart or mind from an operator, counter person, or any one else that does not have an office with a door. If we can come together as a people to stop the b*llsh*t we will all have more time, a better everyday attitude, and a better standard of life.

Shoe Size #11

I like to think of myself as a world traveler, although the wet foot-dry foot policy would say that I have never been out of the country. I have seen much of the world, much of the U.S., and more people then I could ever count. Since I turned eighteen I have lived I eight states and twelve cities all on the east coast. I have lived in Knoxville at the warren house apartments on Ten Mile road while I waited for a job at the Oakridge facility, a nuclear research facility. I lived New Johnsonville, both in Tennessee, and worked at a Dupont plant, building a air separator that turned regular air in to bottled gasses like argon, helium, and got to hang out with some Germans that had came over with the machine and was there to make sure that we installed it right. I built a hanger for the navy in Brunswick Maine that housed a squadron of these planes that have a bump on the under side that was for looking for submarines although they never found one in American waters. There in Brunswick they done their cold weather training and there would be guys repelling form helicopters and jets taking off all day, I even was even with in rock throwing distance to Air Force One, most of the time they fly in to Portsmith New Hampshire, but for some Reason on this day they flew in there. I worked for Compaction of America in Paris TX, and for a Kimberly Clark also in Texas. I built a coal separating plant in Batavia Ohio, and one in Henderson Ky, and almost got arrested at Oktoberfest, for being drunk under aged and asking where how to get to Bolivia instead of Batavia. The Compaction of America was in Kawani Ill, and that town had the most nasty water I have ever had it was so bad that at restaurants they would ask if you wanted ice. For me this has left me with the urge to go back and see these places again. The last place I lived was Palm Beach Gardens Florida. I was there last winter from November to February, helping my oldest brother in his job. Most people say “oh ya West Palm Beach” when ever to refer to palm beach, but there are four palm beaches. The first is Palm Beach is right on the beach and is almost an island. Palm Beach down town has more banks then I have ever seen in my life, in one place. They are grand building, looking more like mansions than banks. With names you cannot pronounce, from countries you cannot spell. Drive down any street and your bound to run in to a Ferrari Dealer, Armani clothing store, there are two Armani one high priced one and an Armani discount store, the cheese cake factory, and tons of people. There is all he nightlife you would ever want. Going west from there you come to West Palm Beach this is past the intercostals waterway and is still ritzy but what I loved about the beaches is that a S Class Mercedes does not even turn one head on the street, when around here people think they are shiting in high cotton with a new corolla. People need to take a step back and look not at themselves but at the world around. When all you can see is the next step in front of you, your perception is nil and your world shrinks to the size of a footprint, the world is not measured in shoe size.

Something from Nothing #9

Last week while shopping for nothing unparticular I happened upon the large appliance aisle. There I browsed in lanes looking at the styles and color options of new stoves, refrigerator or, washing machines, and microwaves. Some of the new microwaves cost as much as eighteen hundred dollars and will cook things faster and better then anything before. They have browners that will give the appearance of baking, with food that has a crispy crust just like an oven. An incandescing light is used in some models to improve cook time and to cook faster. This technology is nice but for now it is still out of reach for most consumers who are just trying to spend thirty dollars on one so they can reheat a burrito or warm a cup of coffee. This is fine a regular microwave should only be used to reheat food not to cook it. Besides bacon "which I think is fine to cook in a microwave" I thought no one could or would want to cook something raw in a microwave, from start to finish, until the other day.I was having a conversation with someone at a local tavern telling him about my trip to electronic store. Regaling them in what I have seen and learned, this continued on for a while with nothing really said. Until he started talking about cooking scrambled egg in the microwave from scratch from just raw eggs in a bowl. I found that to be a disturbing idea one that I would never repeat. At this time I should say that my kitchen is always clean and I am a proud dishwasher so the notion of having to wash a pan or dirtying the stovetop I say bring it on.The man went in to detail on how to prepare the micro-eggs in depth. Telling how while watching through the glass panel door you can watch the reactions happen. I have never tried this so I can only repeat what he said, so my description maybe off somewhat. But inesance you mix as many egg as you want and milk in to a bowl and put it in the microwave. He told as how his stepmother would cook eggs for the entire family for breakfast like this in one attempt in one bowl. I do not know why but this was unsettling to me for some reason. Just cooking eggs in the microwave is an alien thought. He said "you cook them till they are done" and I replied, "two three minutes" he said "till they are done" well as a cook myself this was not enough information for me. He insisted that you never have to stir them or tent to them you just hit start and watch. What was crazy is that he said like plump up into a blob of egg. It’s like egg Jell-O from the microwave or something. The eggs expand as the cook and you can see this happen. The scrambled part is where you take a fork and break up the egg blob in to tiny scrambled egg blobs. Now I am an egghead I eat them, scramble them, Sunnyside up, omelet, sulfa, cambula, whatever but not in the microwave.I have cooked for my self so long that I consider myself a chef and I know without a shadow of a doubt that I can out cook most people, most people’s parent, I will even out cook your grandma and that is no hogwash. I own a flour sifter and sift all the flour I ever use, I make sauces from cornstarch, pasta from nothing, from nothing and a dusty board, My heart goes out to all that miss out on homemade food the one you see at the American style buffet as you drive by. I know the joy of spending hours making a meal all the prep work, ruining some thing three times in a row before you can say yes I can my a cobbler form fruit and flour, yes I use turmeric, yes I cook.

BRONCOILLAC #8

In a world of shock and ah and capitalist warmongers, they want our attention focused directly on the screen, directly on them. They keep us pointed straight ahead toward the terror alert level yellow one day red the next. Who is left to save us all, well its Charlie Gibson to the rescue, with his devil may care attitude, silk tie, hands that have never saw a days worth of work, pompadour comb over, and penny loafers. Does this sound like the start of some Riddle Scott movie no this sounds like the start of my day.I have to watch CNN before I ever step out the thresh hold of my house; this has been ingrained into me. What if they are looking for some white guy 5’2 to5’11, freshly shaven or not, 145 to 200 lbs, driving a white Bronco or red Cadillac, what then I ask you if you fit in to this description would you venture in the wilds of suburbia.Shock is a reaction and the effect of this has a cause. Knee-jerk timing and a steady hand is all that apply. Its not that were caught off guard it is that we are now ready for any eventa falling glass, a stranded puppy, a friend surprise, all these invoke a reaction and it is from here we find our self.People have craved suspense as entertainment for thousands of year from Shakespeare to H.G.Wells. It does not matter if it is on stage, screen, or sidewalk its all-good ground for storytelling. Some would say that with new movie and c g I we can now see and experience things like never before, seeing them in a whole new light. Hogwash I say. Good suspense and folklore is dying out as time goes by. We need to listen with open ears to all that going on around. So much has been lost with languages and cultures extinct now and no way to trace most of their authors their works are lost. We will continue forward through recorded time from now to oblivion with only PG rated Disney movies and network television miniseries dribble.As far as real shock value that is found in everyday life. These are the things that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. There from the mundane little car swerve to avoid a glass bottle, or thinking you have just lost your car keys, to real life and death moments that happen all around you every day. Some people take some of these as life affirming moments, epiphanies, or revelations. Even fewer changing their way of life altogether if it’s climbing the Alps, building a boat, or collecting ten thousand toilet seats, it changes you.I have never been close to something horrible, no one moment of terror, and of this I guess I am lucky, all though luck has no count in it. Most is timing, it’s being at that stoplight, that edge, there at the split second its not that you’re on time just that you are there then. Most of the time people do not look back in regret or hurt, it’s that it becomes a part of them, lives in them, is them.As humans we love the separated fear that comes a long with watching a horror movie in a dimly lit theater the red carpet stretched out in front of us, safe and warm. From gladiators in the roman times to modern day alligators tamers shows that dot Florida we all will gather to witness uncertainties, who will lose a finger today we ask each other 'round the water cooler. It all comes down to having something to talk about if there is a good plot and character development we might listen we might care