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And so it goes…

I was informed this week of cut coke cans and hanging sox in the center of the park.  I was told this so I would clean it up.  LOWANDBEHOLD while cleaning up the mess of the lounging lizzard I came upon Calvin’s old plants from the front of his house that he never watered.  Of course he dumped them in the Park.  I guess he thought he was contributing to the topsoil.  Thank you Calvin.  It’s okay for you to pick up a can or piece of trash.  No matter how much you and the Baltimore Black people try to convince me to vote for the Republican President–I am thankful that Obama is an elitist and he will still get my vote.  People talk about stereotypes–I am the stereotypical Dumb Polack and many stereo types are oh so right on–that’s why they are stereotypes–a confluence of repetitive energy coming from all sides converging in the middle–or is that surround sound types?

One of our gardening group is off to Baton Rouge for the Red Cross and Gustov–good luck.

This past weekend Heather Macleod finished the final edit on Hey, Diddle Diddle–Blood is the Riddle and we sent the most recent update off to be printed. It should be available in the next couple of weeks at

Amazon.com or http://www.mayopia.com/ to begin.

Life has been hectic and the refrigerator went on the fritz. Tuesday past I went to Best Buy in Glen Burnie, Maryland and with the wonderful assistance of Heather Fowler in appliances, and with two year payments interest free, purchased an LG refrigerator. I first arranged for delivery on Saturday, but after arriving home discovered a next day delivery may save some food. I called Best Buy and spoke with Adam and he arranged for the next day delivery, Wednesday. That night a rep from Best Buy called and said I would receive a call in the morning when the delivery team was on its way. At 07.20 on Wednesday I took a call that the delivery would take place within a half hour when I again informed them of the back entrance and deck–I believe. I had been prepping since 06.30 and had time to run the hose out to the North end of Unit South D community garden and turn on the water.

The 18 foot Penske truck soon pulled up the alley and I suggested they loop the block and drive up the service alley that the trash truck generally uses. They declined direction and stopped where the alleys cross. The sales team had been informed that there was a deck in the back where the refrigerator had to enter the house since the front door is too small with a close wall. One of the three men met me at the back gate and was in a hurry. I led him up the steps of the deck where the railing had been removed for easy access, through the French doors, the living room, dining room and into the kitchen. Where I had pulled the old fridge away from the wall and the copper tubing for the ice maker could be seen clearly.

“It’s Best Buy policy that the water line has its own cutoff valve,” the man said. “I can turn off the water.” I answered. “It has to have its own cutoff valve,” he repeated. I won’t say that he was already looking for a way out–did I say that. “It won’t fit in here,” he said. There were three large men but I had no name of the man in the house. “I’ll pop the molding and it shouldn’t be a problem,” I said. “We need 31 inches,” he said.

Anyway, I will admit that my mind is shot from the workload of late so everything is subject to interpretation and the perception will vary greatly with the individuals involved. We did go back out to the truck which was full to the back with appliances and I was told that there was a large bubble on the back of this model fridge so it wouldn’t fit. I didn’t remember a bubble from the showroom floor the previous day but he convinced me that it wouldn’t fit without really trying but not without trying to get me to sign a paper, which I refused to do, and I wasn’t very happy as they pulled off. I called the number that had called for delivery that morning and filed a complaint–a couple of times. When Best Buy opened I called and spoke with Adam and said I would be there at Noon. We measured the fridge space where the doors would be removed and it was a bit over 29 inches including rubber.

I spoke with several people in the next few hours including someone who claimed to be Rob Jones of Corey Home Delivery. He said that the name of the man in charge of the delivery was Martin Greenwood. Again what’s a name? I told Rob Jones that 29 and a half inches was available to get into the kitchen and that was more than enough room for the fridge. Mr Jones (presumably) said that they had that same model in the warehouse and it was a little bit over 29 and a half inches so it couldn’t be delivered since it wouldn’t fit through the kitchen door without lifting–it was against their contract. He would not give me the address of Corey Home Delivery since this was against their policy. I said I wanted to file action against them.

I spoke with Adam at Best Buy and said if they delivered they didn’t have to take it into the kitchen. Mr. Jones called me back and said another crew coming in later from Virginia would bring the fridge that night.

I received a call from Barut Labastida at 19.18 and they arrived shortly after 20.00. Mr. Labastida entered the rear of the house and measured the space at 29 and a half inches and announced that the fridge is 28 inches with doors removed. By flashlight he expertly removed the doors and he and his partner another Latino lifted the fridge onto the deck and rolled it through into the kitchen space. I took pictures.

I believe that since ours was the first stop of the day, the early crew blew us off because of the extra work involved and they get paid by the stop. Why the lazy greedy liars had the bigger truck is beyond my comprehension. After spending much time on hold listening to Best Buy’s propaganda about their desire to please I wondered why the Latino’s didn’t have the bigger truck. Heather Fowler and Adam at Best Buy were wonderful. Barut and his helper were great. Jones and Greenwood and the other two big guys on the truck–shame on you.

Three days of taxi school where the only white guy is the evil Satan and the enemy. One day of taxi host class where the only other white guy says the generalization of taxi drivers is that they are stupid. And the black teacher says it’s okay to discriminate against certain people but don’t generalize.

“If you talking about the cultural differences you ain’t making money and if you ain’t making money you ain’t working.” That’s what the man said one day. He was another teacher. Another day he told the story about when there were only white men driving the trackless trolleys that ran under electric wires connected and energized by spring loaded steel arms. When the trolley would pull off to the side of the road to pick up passengers he and his friends would pull the ropes and de-energize the trolley and then laugh at the white man struggle alone to reconnect to the electric cable above. “Times have sure changed,” he said while talking members of the group into signing on to a $25,000 for the year contract to pay the company to drive for a year. At least that’s what was said on the surface. Who’s on first? What is going on here? And the boss woman said Yellow has been operating the same way since it was founded. Who’s zooming who?

On the other hand:

Hey, Diddle Diddle–Blood is the Riddle tracks 1984 through 1996 the
adventures of Sullivan Duda and his alter ego Rupert in their
transcendental existential meanderings trying to do the right thing:
carrying water, writing scripts, making videos and finally becoming involved
in the North Carolina Hemophilia community to make a short film “A Drop of Blood”
about the history of hemophilia and the effect of the contamination of the
Blood Supply in the early eighties.

Having driven a taxi off and on for the past 38 years doesn’t mean you need no training. Our methods of communication have definitely deteriorated. Customer service has definitely gone down the tubes though some talk a good talk–I’m sure no one is really listening. I have one more class to attend–one I took six years ago but I believe that my chances are slim of actually getting a job with Yellow Checker since the woman who does the hiring asked me to leave the room for disrupting class when I asked her questions. I was allowed to return when I promised to keep my mouth shut even though I raised my hand before speaking. It was the request to see something in writing that threw her, I believe.

We are still working on Hey Diddle Diddle–Blood is…

Milburn’s cover is very cool and we will be posting it soon. For now “What we have here is failure to communicate.”

NEWSUNIT AUGUST 11, 2008

http://www.mayopia.com/UNITSOUTHD/UNITSOUTHD.html

Rupert says, “Shoot with a Camera–Fight with a Pen—Tow with Greenwood”.

This page will be hand dropped in every mail slot on the block–it concerns the Block. It is also sent out by e-mail and posted on the WEB.

The Unit South Durham, Inc. is in the final stages of the purchase of 7 South Durham Street–the park and parking—SLOWLY BUT SURELY–we’ve been told–The “PACKAGE” is in the hands of the City Comptroller.

It is the responsibility of individual residents to keep the area in front and back of their residence clear of debris. The heavy rain washes into the sewer system that runs into the harbor and Bay. Don’t expect anyone else to pull your weeds or sweep up your leaves OR PURCHASE your Roundup. I assure you enough money and time is spent spraying between the bricks in the park that I’m just not that good of a neighbor to do it for you. Individual dues are still being held onto for the purchase of the park and insurance. Personal out of pocket money is used for the upkeep of the park for now.

It is suggested that USD purchase signs for people to pick up after their dogs since there has been quite a change recently from no dog waste left to mucho crap. The condoms are still plentiful also but a sign will probably not change that a bit. I have a sign catalogue from Greenwood.

When SECO owned Saint Michael’s Boys they were asked on several occasions to place a motion detector light at the center back steps where there is a hidden corner. The answer was always, “That’s a good idea.” And nothing was ever done. Perhaps the new neighbors would agree to the light since they are expecting to sell their condos in a safe clean environment.
It is summer and there have been several occasions where loungers have been asked to move along and they usually do. There is no need to bother the police unless the situation seems unmanageable. It is the responsibility of the BLOCK to maintain its own security as per the agreement with the CITY OF BALTIMORE.

Remember the only reason the Parking remains for the Unit Block South Durham is the care and preservation of the Pocket Park and Green Space. Please do your part to keep it safe, secure, clean and green and an open space for the surrounding neighborhood.

Anyone wishing to comment:

http://www.tai-chi-one.com/BLOGCHI/

category: DEMOCRAZY?

The first draft of Hey Diddle Diddle was written in 1996/1997.  At that time I used fake names for everyone, hence in the rewrite a bit of confusion ensued.  Though many names are still other names and a few “alter egos”, many corrections are being made for the final manuscript with the help of notes and publications that were given to us for reference, but this is still a novelfor what it’s worth.

The man who was said to have recently committed suicide and then blamed for mailing anthrax love notes because he worked at Fort Dietrich, Maryland suffered from depression for which he was being treated.  And then there was the man arrested for saying he was going to do harm to future president Obama and never present President Bush.  Our human rights abuses of maintaining a facility that creates WMD chemicals and viruses while advertising the thought police are on patrol while we criticize other regimes for doing the same things is typical of the climate of hypocricy that reigns in America the Beautiful.

The recent revisions on Diddle have taken up most of my time.  It comes in at 101,669 words according to word-count.  I’m working on the last 14 pages and then reformatting begins.   My first unfinished book was written on a typewriter and my first completed and published novel DUST RAINBOWS and DIRTY SOX was written on typewriters. The computer does make a difference.  I picked up an application for Yellow Taxi yesterday–We hope to get a neighborhood newsletter out this week–Milburn is working on a cover design for diddle–and the city is still looking at papers for the park, of course.

We traveled to China in December 2001 to take photographs and video because of the 2008 Beijing, China Olympics. China by Rail at http://www.mayopia.asia is a sampling of video that we have had time to edit and 2001 China Impressions are digital photos. Art is everywhere in China and at the time there were more soldiers with guns in the USA that were visible than we saw over there.

Someday Duda and Rupert will tell that story but for now they still work on Hey Diddle Diddle…