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Date with fate post 46 - Lawyers, judges, crooks, and cops
This entry was posted on 8/4/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
A recent trip to the tax office jogged my memory of a harried date with fate. This recent visit I had waited until the last day - because I sleep all day due to shitty work hours - to pay the property taxes. If you are late, the first of the next month the bill goes up a couple hundred bucks. So I went right after my night shift instead of going home - which would have meant falling asleep until the last minute to get to the Court House.
I arrived about 20 minutes early, tired as a mo-fo, and there was already a fellow waiting for the Treasurer's office to open. He was probable about my age but he had weathered life better. He was all decked out in his clean and pressed delivery uniform, so in his case it looked like he was on his way to work. We were an odd couple of sorts. He with his proper hair and uniform. Me with my mussed-up pony tail, camouflage pants, and my ink-covered, hole-ridden, sleeveless work t-shirt - tattoos of naked chicks everywhere.
But we had a common enemy this day...., the tax man.
We started to chat as we waited to give up a chunk of our incomes. I leaned against the door of what was once the County Clerk's office. They have moved down the hall these days. It brought back a memory, and while we waited, I told the man this story.
Back when my Mom was still alive, she insisted I run the property tax payment down to the Court House personally for her - every year. When she got near the end of her life and I had moved in to take care of her, things got harried, tense, and stressful. It must have been the last time she made a payment before she died. And, it was getting harder and harder to leave her unattended and alone.
So that morning around 10 years ago, in sweat pants and sweat shirt, I dashed out to my little Geo Metro and sped down to the Court House. There was and still is a small desk outside the Treasurer's door so you can do any last minute filling out of paper work or checks. The pockets of my sweat pants were small with holes in them so I held my small wrap-around makeshift wallet in my hand. I stopped at the desk to dot one last "i" and cross one last "t" Everyone in the office is always pleasant. I gathered the receipt from the appreciative woman at the desk, turned and quickly headed back down the stairs thinking about what trouble my elderly and very ill mother may have been up to in my short absence.
I hopped in my little car and raced home - way above the posted speed limit. Like in some movie, I zipped into the driveway at a sloppy angle, jumped out and ran to the door - hoping to find my Mom still asleep.
Then it struck me, something was wrong, I peeked into the house, and Mom was indeed still sleeping in her hospital bed. But what was not quite right? Something. I thought for a minute - and then, "Oh, my fuck'n god, my wallet was not in the ratty little sweat pant pocket." My heart sank - credit cards, Social Security Card, driver's license, fifty bucks in cash, and ten other dandy things a crook would love.
I left Mom sleeping, crossed my fingers, took a quick survey of the car floor and seat - no wallet - and drove back to the Court House through town at what seemed 60 miles an hour.
Nothing at the "Help Desk." They sent me to "Lost and Found." Nothing there either, but the woman did say, "Oh heck, if you just lost it 15 minutes ago, go back to the scene of the crime."
Up the big marble steps I ran. By then there was a line of people down the hall waiting to pay their property taxes. The little table was empty. No one had seen a wallet. I must have looked like death warmed over, but a kind old fellow shoved my up to the front of the line and said, "Get in there son and see if them women at the desk have it."
Nothing there; but, one woman at the desk said, "Go across hall; people seem to think the County Clerk is more important than us."
Compared to the busy Treasurer's office, the Clerk's office was like a tomb. Two women sat a neat desks and gave me a school teacher smile when I walked in empty handed. "I have lost a wallet," I said with a deflated spirit."
"Really; we might be able to help you. Can you describe it?" one of the wry women asked.
I started to give some details. "Not much left of it. Sides gone; held to getter with a couple rubber bands; name's Bob Keith...."
"Stop," she said as she handed me my wallet. "Why do you keep all this important stuff in this little bundle, are you goofy?
"Living here temporarily. It is all my important stuff in the mean time," I said apologetically.
"Well even the money is still here. A old man and woman turned it in," she said with a "your-lucky-this-time," look.
I thanked both the women, I am sure inadequately, turned and headed for the door with saved wallet in tow. Then I stopped a the door, turned back and asked, "Hey, why do you thing no one stole it?"
The two women looked at each other and laughed. Then the second woman who had been rather quiet through the whole exchange pipped up, "Ah ha ha ha...., sir, look where you lost it. All the honest people are in the hallway waiting to pay their taxes."
Then she added after a pause....
"Had you lost it on the other side of the Court House with all the lawyers, judges, crooks, and cops...., you'd have never found it!"
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies 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 Specialist Scott Thomas Nagorski, 27, Greenfield, Wisconsin, was killed on Tuesday, November 14, 2010, in Kunar province, Afghanistan. He was one of five soldiers killed during a six-hour firefight that began when insurgents attacked their unit with small-arms fire during an operation to clear out Taliban militants and weapons caches near the Pech River in the Watahpur district of Kunar province. Specialist Nagorski was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
The Web site militarytimes.com notes the area of the battle where Specialist Nagorski was killed was in the volatile Watahpur valley in eastern Kunar province along Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan. It was part of Operation Bulldog Bite to search out militants and weapons caches near the Pech river.
Scott Nagorski was born on November 13, 1983. He was a was a 2002 graduate of Franklin High School, in Franklin, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned that as a young man Scott bought a 1962 Oldsmobile F-85 and fixed it up and brought it to weekly gatherings of hot rod enthusiasts. He eventually sold the car but had hopes of getting another. Nagorski had joined the Army in 2006. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Nagorski died the day after he turned 27. And, four days after his death, Nagorski's daughter celebrated her 1st birthday. Nagorski's maternal grandfather was an Army veteran of the Korean War. Nagorski had re-enlisted in the service.
Some Specialist Nagorski's military awards and medals include: The Army Achievement Medal; the National Defense Service Medal; the Iraq Campaign Medal; the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; the Army Service Ribbon; and, the NATO Medal.
At the time of his death Scott Nagorski was survived by his wife Nadine (nee Zrinsky); daughter Melodie; parents Karen (Jasinkski) and Scott Kurath; father Jeffrey Bignell; sister Nichole Jasinski; grandfather Ernie Nagorski; father-in-law Robert (Tracy) Zrinsky; mother-in-law Laurie (Greg) Brandon; and, step-brother Kyle Bignell.
Scott Nagorski was laid to rest at Wood National Cemetery near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Army Specialist Scott Nagorski was the 26th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
102,013 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,119 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,477 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1680 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
931 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011
32,158 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
12,877 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
34 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since October, 2001.
149 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
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 .
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