As I have mentioned previously, during my five years foray with lifeguarding at "The Y," I spent most of that time taking early morning shifts. Many a day I would drag myself out of bed at 3:00 a.m. and make my way up the 20 miles to the southwest side of Madison. We lived in the boondocks of York Township in rural Green County. Sometimes they did not plow the snow on our narrow curved road for two days. And when they did they used an ancient road grader. My 1992 GEO Metro always smashed through the drifts. Heide would often have to spend those days at home - her big Pontiac being inadequate in any amount of snow.
I did a lot of thinking all those mornings on those empty roads north. One day I saw a hot-shot morning disc-jockey who lived out my way pass me at one hundred miles per hour in his new pickup truck. About five minutes later I came into the edge of Madison and there he was...pulled over by the coppers...dumb ass.
The west side YMCA was on an odd little street right off the Beltline. When the quiche-eating elitists in Madison finally stopped arguing and built their Highway 12 by-pass, the rubric they came up with dicked up quite a few existing old roads. To make a long story short, I had to go about six extra blocks to get to the little road "The Y" sat on that once could be reached by a simple turn.
But the caveat was, I could just cut across South Whitney Way, pop up the one-way street...the wrong way...one block, and duck in to "The Y" parking lot. At 4:00 a.m. in the morning what did it matter? One morning I was running late like my DJ pal. I took a quick glance at "The Y" situation from the Beltline frontage road, and there was only one set of head lights...at least three-quarters of a mile up Whitney.
I blasted across Whitney and into the one-way road...the wrong way, and popped into "The Y" parking lot. The faithful lap swimmers were already gaggled at the door chomping at the bit to get in the building. I zipped into my parking spot and no sooner I hopped out of my little bullet, a lady cop blasted in the lot with lights a'blaring.
"You went down the wrong way," she snapped at me as she hopped out of the "Crown Vic." All the bit chompers looked impatient...they did not care about my situation.
"This is my first day on the job," I shot back at her.
She looked at me, and then glanced over at the faithful. The crowd all held their breath. Ol' Bugger rolled his old eyes and I could see him mouth, "First day; bull fuck'n shit!"
The lady cop paused for a second, and then finally said, "Here's the deal asshole. If I ever even see you some day just look like you are thinking about violating my street signs, I will pull you over just to fuck with you even if you havn't done anything wrong."
She poofed her hair out of her eyes, hoped in her squad car, and made a little screech with her tires as she pulled off.
I looked at my flock and just shrugged.
As I walked by the gaggle of faithful, Ol' Bugger said, "You lucky bastard."
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Private First Class Jon Bailey St. John II, 25, Neenah, Wisconsin, was killed on Saturday, January 27, 2007, in Taji, Iraq. Taji is just north of Baghdad. He was one of three soldiers killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle during convoy operations. PFC St. John was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned St. John was born May 13, 1981, in Neenah, Wisconsin. He excelled in many areas while in school and was known for his proficiency in math, tennis, football, guitar, and piano. Jon graduated from St. Mary Central High School of Menasha (now in Neenah, Wisconsin) in 1999. He was said to love reading and made the Dean's List at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse where he majored in business and marketing. He had six credits left to graduation. He had also attended the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley. The Journal Sentinel went on to note that during college Jon worked at a ski hill near La Crosse and enjoyed downhill skiing. He also enjoyed snowmobiling and hunting grouse and deer in Bayfield County. St. John joined the Army in 2005 and was deployed to the Middle East in 2006. He working as a machine gunner on top of a Humvee. The Web site iraq.pigtye.net (a site with military casualty data) quoting information from an Appleton/Fox Cities data base, mentioned Jon's home area was in the small community of Vineland a town of about 1900 just south of Neenah. At the time of his death Jon St. John II was survived by his parents Jon and Katie St. John; and, his sister Sonja. Jon St. John II was the 70th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
98,585 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,761 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,432 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1356 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
824 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
31,979 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,951 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
24 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
144 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
