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Fourteenth Job of Bob - Park and Rec Part IX - some actors, '71 Buick in the pool
This entry was posted on 1/10/2008 4:48 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
As I settled in my supervisor job with the City of Dallas Park and Recreation Department it became clear the department, the people, the city, and the state were often a compendium of overlapping templates of transcending contradictions. It spoke to the general lunacy of government and people alike. There was a sickly fellow named Bobby. He always smiled and spoke pleasantly. But he was tagged as weak and slow. There was a good deal of heavy lifting in the world of parks. They put him on my crew because I prided myself in taking in all comers. Finally, my boss had reprimanded him for one too many inadequacies. I sat with him in her office for two hours as she read off infraction after infraction - lateness, lack of team effort, not calling in, excessive absenteeism, inappropriate use of a vehicle, etc., etc. I thought I was attending a court-martial of a notorious spy or the like. Bobby sat the whole time with his eyes welled up with tears. In the end my boss said, "Well Mr. Bobby, what have you to say for yourself?"
Bobby paused and said, "Boss lady, I tried the best I could."
There was a little lady named Maria. She could not pronounce Vinca - it is a prolific ground cover in North Texas. Maria called it "Inca." "There is a sprinkler leak in the Inca bed," she might say. I began to think of her as Inca.
One day I got a call from a police officer shortly after I sent the crews out in the morning. "I thought I should call you directly," he said. "One of your people has been in a wreck."
"Damn," I thought, "They have only been gone five minutes." When I got to the scene, there was Inca. She had been pulling a riding mower on a trailer behind her work truck.
The truck was smashed, the trailer was smashed, the mower was smashed. No other vehicles were in the crash. I asked how it was everything got wrecked in a one vehicle crash.
"The trailer, it come unhook," she said. "It try to pass me, and when I speed up - I run over it."
In the city there were many old parks with many neighborhood swimming pools that were only four feet deep. It was a construct from the 1950s. They at least cooled the kids off in the redundant 100 degree days in Texas. One day Inca called me out of breath on the radio and said, "Car in pool Mr. Bob." I found the park in question and sure enough, there was a '71 Buick in the small pool at Beacon Park up to its windows in water. I called the dispatcher and relayed the dilemma. I described the odd occurrence of an abandoned car, that of a '71 Buick in the pool, suggested we needed the winch-crane truck from the Forestry crew to remove it, and then waited for a response.
In a moment a crackling Southern accent came back, "Do I copy we have a 1971 Buick in Beacon Pool? ....Is that a two-door or a four-door?"
I was stunned for a moment. And then I rather lost it. "What the fuck does it matter, the damn car must be un-assed from the damn pool," I said in the mic disregarding radio etiquette. There was a pause by the dispatcher.
"I was a need'n a rear door handle for my ol' Skylark," the apologetic Southern accent returned.
Stupid pop culture, media-complex, distraction-from-reality story
I am thinking, each day I should jot down the stupidest news story that is foist upon us by the big-media-complex as a distraction from the reality that has become America. So here we go - welcome to today's "Stupid Pop Culture, Media-complex, Distraction-from-reality Story."
Hey everybody, the big-media-talking-heads are cooing over a handful of rich two-party wonks of which one will be elected President of my beloved country. Said President will then have a free pass to continue destroying us working shlubs. Oh, God that is just too painful to anticipate. Here is the real damn story. Man customer finds wife in brothel - survival of marriage in question. What, this will end in divorce? Ah, who'd a seen that coming? Now there is some real God damned news!
Wisconsin military service person of the week
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Army Specialist Eric Poelman, 21, originally of Mount Pleasant was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 5, 2005. A roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle. Eric was on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was a tank driver with the L Troop, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Battalion. The unit's stateside home is Fort Carson, Colorado. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Eric's parents home-schooled him and his two brothers. Poelman enlisted in the Army on January, 2003. He was first deployed in Iraq in November 2003. He returned to the U.S. just under a year later and was then redeployed in March, 2005. He was married between tours. His wife Renate was living in Racine with family at the time of his death. Poelman is survived by his wife Renate, two brothers Andy and Greg, and his mom and dad Sally and Matthew. Specialist Poelman was the 39th military service member from Wisconsin to die in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
3,912 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
471 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
28,882 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,851 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
84 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
6 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
125 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
14 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; and, icasualties.org.
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