Out From the Center

The house was in shambles. Uniformed officers trolled through the rubble.  The detectives hadn’t arrived on scene yet.  There really wasn’t much for them to do at this point, other than to try to preserve the scene.

The scene. The scene was fucked.  And not in a good way. The neighbors reported shouting. It was actually the domestic that they were responding to. It had become part of the beat. Not that it was exclusive to this part of town. Just more…common.

The heat blew past the car before they even turned the corner. The neighboring buildings were miraculously untouched.  It wasn’t really magic. That’s just the bullshit that would pass for news. Masking a tragedy with a sliver of good news. There weren’t enough silver linings these days.

“What the fuck?!” This was definitely not something that was ever covered in any academy course. They would both know, they weren’t in the uniforms a full year yet.

The car lurched as they drove in to what could easily pass for a war zone at this point. They were out of the car and radioing for additional emergency services with a calm air. The viscera and stench of burnt dreams notwithstanding, witnesses would see two cops moving with an almost machine like presence through the destruction.

Later the arson detectives and fire marshall would officially rule that the cause of the blast was a faulty utility line coming in to the one of the inner units. The blast emanated from there. Out from the center.

The monitor snapped to black in the board room.

“So…gentlemen. You’ve seen what they can do. How many can we put your city down for?”

Danger In A Jar

I am not a fan of stereotypes or sweeping generalizations based on heritage.

Unless I'm making them about myself.

I am of Irish descent.

I like the drink.

I like to tell stories (both aloud, and in written form). You might say I'm a storyteller.

Stereotypical drunk storytellin' Irishman. Go screw yerself. I've embraced this part of who I am. If you don't like it go read something else.

Needless to say, I always have a story to tell and libations to share.

Tonight was no exception.

As was walking home from tonight's Vine St. Celebration I was thinking about the fact that I had given, not one...not two...but three of my neighbors the link to my blog. I sure as shit hope I didn't talk shit about them anywhere down the line. Because...dude...if I did...clearly I didn't know how cool they were.

I know that now.

It's after 1...or almost 1AM.  Or will be by the time you read this (or I finish it)...in any event. It's about 2 hours later than I normally go to bed. And a lot less sober than I normally do.  If you're reading this, Kacy (god I hope I spelled that right), and Greg--I made it home. That 40 ft walk was treacherous, but I'm a pro.

So...yeah. It's late and I'm not sober.

Bear with me here...I'm sure I had a point of some sppppppppppppppppppppsx'mmmmmmmmmm`1ji]p
nkl ,gyy

*UPDATE*
This is over a week later...maybe almost 2 weeks later. I really haven't updated the blog in a frickin' long time.

I'll spare you the fact that I apparently fell asleep on the keyboard. For a very long time. Like Rip Van Winkle long (not Rob Van Winkle long). That little blip of non-sense you see above went on for PAGES.

I don't know why. For all my bullshitting about being a writer, I really need to write more.

No..I know it's not really bullshit. But apparently some people think that if you're not published, then you're not really a writer. I don't really ever believe those people. Except for the times I do.

When I post on Facebook some random refrigerator magnet about writing, my Dad will invariably comment with "Nike." Which, in our lingo means...."dude, Stop posting shit about writing on Facebook and get to writing."

I really don't know where I was going with this post when I started it, but I do so hate to leave things unfinished. I'm gonna close up this post now in hopes that somewhere down the line that muse re-visits me (Drunk Todd has completely different trains of thought than non-Drunk Todd...so we may never know).

Any way...I'm off to do some writing. I have a short screenplay that I wrote about the power of prayer that I'm going to re-craft in to an actual story. I know it's backwards from how things are normally done with regards to writing/screen-writing, but I have to give it a shot for now. It's something. And I need to keep writing, especially while the characters in my book are being particularly uncooperative.

Have a great rest of your evening.

-AT

Stay Of Execution

So...many of my close friends know how I feel about my previous job. I'm not going to get in to it here. I will say that I loved my customers. THEY were what made it difficult for me to leave my previous job.

I still have some friends that work there. Not many. I ran completely out of fucks to give by the time I was ready to put a feather on the 14 year cap that was that place.

So...funny thing happened today.

I went back.

No...not for good. And not for a job.  Actually a friend of mine still works there (or left and came back) and had some airshow tickets for me. I was to meet him at work (his work) and pick up the tickets.

I pulled in to the lot and let him know I was there. He said he was coming out. When he didn't, I texted back..."you're still in the same building, right?"

He laughed, via text. They were.

He came out a few minutes later. We caught up. Compared summer surgical scars and we talked about what makes a company a good place to work.  Apparently a lot has changed in the 3+ years since I worked there. But fundamentally underneath it all, it sounds like the reasons that I had for leaving still remained and it was the right decision.

I don't know what I expected when I pulled in. But I have to say that it just felt off and it was the subtle nod (not that I needed one) that I did the right thing.

And then a funny thing happened. Saw one of my good friends walking out to go to his car and I pulled up. ?The smile and genuine joy he expressed at seeing me was enough to warm my heart. It was cool. He started falling out...like..Oh my GOD! What are you doing here?!? You are not going to believe this...it's the craziest thing.  I was working with F---- on a test database today and her login didn't work. So I tried D---'s login. Then I tried mine.  None of them worked. So I said 'Try Todd's login and password'....and that worked!!! And then two hours later, you're here!!!'

To hear him tell it, it was the coolest thing ever.  There are some friends I made there. And those handful, I miss. But...there's nothing I can think of, short term or long that would lead me to work there again. We made plans to hang out. I left and drove home.

It's funny how little things like that can pop back in to your life to remind you of why you made the choices you made (and to affirm that they were, indeed, the correct choices).

Not a super long entry, but certainly longer than a FB post would allow.

In other news....Cleveland National Airshow. Sunday. Word. Taking the DSLR...gotta see if I still have the knack of taking airshow pix.

Alright...that's all I got for now. Go ahead and go back to looking at pix of kitties or whatever you were doing before you clicked on this link.

Peace Out
Todd