“Where did you stay last night?”
“Can’t tell you.”
“Where are you staying tonight?”
“Don’t know.”
“What happened to your head?”
“Two guys jumped me and beat me up.”
Rescue Randy
He doesn’t look too good as he sits in the back of the truck, but Randy will swim again. He is just resting, preparing for the next rescue. He tried to give a high five. I settled for a wave.
Ed Green, Ex-Coast Guard Officer, now marine inspector, makes sure the boats that travel Lake Champlain can handle a rescue. He puts Rescue Randy into the water, filled with a little ballast. The crew pulls him back into the boat and places him in a space prepared for resussitation.
Sarah and Jesse
Jesse looked the same. Saw him sitting alone on a rock on Church Street.
Met Sarah in City Hall Park. She said she might be evicted. “All the city does is make people homeless.”
Nectar’s Body Painting
Vermont has a reputation for being a liberal state. Don’t get all heated up. Just because VT started the civil union movement, one which should have been a no brainer, doesn’t make it the home of progressive politics. Sometimes, they let us have some fun.
Pearl Street
He approached me in the parking lot of the State Store. “Got $.40?”
“What you going to do with $.40?”
“I’ll take…?”
Gave him a $1.00. Took a few shots.
“How did you hurt your head?”
“Me and xxxx moved some furniture.”
“Have too much to drink?”
“No.”
When we came out of the store, having bought our own drinks, he asked me to buy his woman a bottle. I refused. “Why won’t you do me a favor? I got the money.”
George L. Solomon Dead
My friend George Solomon died. The death notice said suddenly, but I would say he saw it coming. Rushing here to there. Driving like a maniac. Wolfing down meals. Not paying attention to his weight. He wanted to live his life his way, death be damned. Sadly he won’t see his daughter’s nuptials, but he did live to see her become engaged.
Bathroom
Bicycle rides in and around Burlington don’t require off road searches for places to pee. Most parks have pissoires, clean, very clean pissoires. This one at Oakledge Park allows bathers a chance to shower and change at Blanchard Beach.
Burlington Street People
Paul tells me he had another life. We have all had another life, at least those of us who tried and failed. He says he was a photographer. Where his work hangs or sits, who knows? He told me yesterday, as he sat on the pavement outside Rite Aid in the rain asking for change that his wife died unexpectedly. BFP called Paul and his friends aggressive panhandlers. Clearly, the business groups don’t want him or his kind around. They removed the bench from the College Street bus stop. Allegedly, Paul moved it back. Got to have some place to sit, eh.
I watched the police action that took one of his friends off the street. No idea what was going on. At least the guy in custody didn’t have to deal with the weather. Paul looked like he had enough, as he walked away freely. I gave him a couple of bucks and some change.
Steven Strassberg
Cox/Getty
In a way I felt disappointed, but that is baseball is it not? Sandy Koufax could not find the plate in his early years. Of course, Sandy was brought up because the rules on bonus babies required that they be with the home team. Nowadays, phenoms, as Steven Strassberg has been called, can find themselves in the Show to fill seats in a stadium in a non-baseball city with lousy weather, mediocre talent, and a poor record. “First in war. First in Peace. Last in the American League.” He could, on the other hand, be the real deal. Last night, he wasn’t. Moreover, he showed he might not be.
Lena Levine
Lena took gas, according to George. She discovered her husband played around and took her own life. She lies in OZ’s hallowed cemetery.
Very hard explaining to UVM students studying death and dying the Jewish way that the religion prevents suicide victims from burial in consecrated ground without knowing how or why she got there. Someone wanted her beauty to live on, putting her image on the stone.
