Dandelyon's Worlds

So, I caught the episode of Regenesis last night, mostly.  As the episode started, I realized that I was hearing a woman yelling outside.  We looked outside and turned the TV down (the late night shows always seem louder than the daytime ones, even without the fact that different channels and programs have differing sound levels).  There was a woman and a man out there, yelling in Spanish.  Very rapid Spanish, changing my chance of guessing what the argument was about from negligible to nonexistent.  Then the woman started throwing things.  Now, I don't want my neighbors killing each other, even if I haven't met them yet.

So I called 911.  Eventually the Milwaukee Sheriff answered, listened to my tale, and transferred me to the 911 operator.  Huh?  I explained everything all over again, and they said someone would come check things out.  So we watched TV, and I returned to the painting of the open instrument case (it's not really properly a guitar shape) in a much more distracted format than we would have preferred.

She stopped throwing things, though they kept yelling.  They sat on the porch.  They walked around.  They kept yelling.  They sat on the porch again.  They walked around some more.  And they kept yelling.  Twilight zone came on.  We wondered where the police were.  They kept yelling.  Eventually, they went in the house, but left the door open (still yelling).  Finally, they closed the door. 

In all this time, we saw no hint of a squad car or other police presence.

I went to take my now-cool bath, figuring that I wouldn't need to be dressed to talk to the police after all.  It's been hot and muggy, so the water was wonderful.  I was all covered in water and soap when My Angel came in to tell me that they were out of the house again, this time the woman was beating on the pick-up the guy had been leaning on earlier, apparently trying to break the windshield. 

Wonderful.  Angel got to talk to 911 this time; I hadn't seen anything from the bath.

So I finished my bath and headed back to the media room, where we could again watch them yell, and be ready to call for help if one of them actually got hurt before the police arrived. 

They got to a point where they walking back and forth the length of our house  in the street (we're on a corner lot, so they were walking down one street between the street that intersects it and the alley), still yelling.  Finally, the man jumped into the vehicle and drove off.  I heard a sound that suggests she threw something at it as he drove past her.  Finally, she goes to the house and closes the door.  At this point, it is starting to get light outside!

Finally, quiet.

Almost an hour after the second call, and roughly a half-hour after the guy left, a police officer finally called.  He decided that since I had seen no injuries on the woman and the man was long gone, he didn't have to check things out any further at that time.

So, where were the police all this time?  Today's news had the answer--the Mayor of Milwaukee had been to the State Fair, and while he was leaving, heard a cry for help.  He came to the rescue of a grandmother, standing between her and the toddler she was with and a drunken man, who was apparently upset because he'd been told he couldn't see his daughter.  The Mayor called 911, and stood between the agitated man and the woman with the baby, receiving a number of cuts from some metal object and finally breaking his hand punching the guy.  The mayor ended up lying bloody on the street while the drunk guy jumped a fence.  So, apparently all the police in the area were hunting this drunk guy who'd already run away from the scene (having no idea he'd assaulted the mayor), and whose identity they knew.  

Consequently, the police were ignoring domestic disputes that appeared to be escalating into violence.  I'm glad that, as it turned out, we didn't have to call 911 to report a stabbing or gunshot wound!

In other news, my Aunt apparently broke her thigh, not actually the hip, though she still needs surgery to implant a titanium rod into her leg.  And my kitchen sink is still not draining, though the laundry tub is. 

And though the case isn't done yet, it's closer.  Comments on the artwork are welcome, by the way!

Life Ain't Fair. But mostly it works out OK, with good will and elbow grease and the right kind of luck.  And the support of friends and family.

OVFF was this weekend, and I wasn’t there.  The decision was made long ago; gas and heating costs are way, way up; groceries are up; everything is up except, of course, my salary is about the same.  Hotel rooms are expensive, but not nearly as bad as gas for the trip.  But this year, instead of sitting around town when all my friends were in Ohio, I ended up driving into Chicago.  The Aunt who was a second mother to my sisters, brother, and me, and now to our children, had been in the hospital all week with something they first tried to treat with antibiotics; when that didn’t work, she was scheduled for major surgery for yesterday.  So my daughter cancelled her social plans and we drove in to Chicago, to help with a cousin’s birthday party (you can't cancel such things, esp. when the kid just started at a new school) and visit my Aunt both Saturday and Sunday.  I made an extra trip Saturday night to take her her mail and her checkbook, so she could pay bills and have one less thing to worry about.  I also did a bunch of little things, like cleaning perishables out of her fridge, bringing in plants before the first real freeze, turning down the thermostat, stuff like that, so when my Aunt gets home, it will still be comfortably homey.  And I took her absentee ballot application to her.  It was good to see her, and spend time talking in person instead of on the phone.

It was also very good to hear, yesterday, that the surgery went a little faster than the doctors had guessed it might, and that things look good.  Of course, she’ll be in ICU a while, and we’ll keep worrying about her for some time, but we can hope the worst, of this challenge at least, is behind us.  

I wouldn’t have been able to be there if I’d already been in Ohio, so, although I very much miss seeing everyone I’d have seen at the con, it’s just as well I didn’t go this year.  It was good to be able to be there for someone who’s always been there for me.