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| It wasn't any of these; (I don't recognize the dogs...) |
I am keeping this short so I can try to finish a story for my Flashback Friday feature...
That being said.....
Departure Date Set
It has taken me 42 minutes just to read/reply to my email, yikes!
We are leaving here "Monday or Tuesday" (3/12/12 or 3/13/12) according to Howard. He is kind of "in the drivers seat" because if left to me the departure would be procrastinated away indefinitely.
He also has a steady flow of income; I'm not sure how much per month, but it is insurance against things like "Busking is totally illegal here in Anytown, they'll take you to jail and you'll never get your guitar back"
I Am Attacked By A Punk
Last night a guy punched me in the face because I wanted a quarter for a cigarette.
He walked by my spot on Decatur with a girl and a dog (of course, a dog). The girl said, "Hey, will you sell me a cigarette?"
I said "25 cents," wherupon the boyfriend got in my face and started yelling "How about I beat your ass. I'll take your whole pack!"
Then, he grabbed my "whole pack" (with about 8 left).
I tried to snatch it out of his hand. He punched me in the head with his other hand, sending my glasses and harmonica flying.
I stood up, mainly to protect my guitar from whatever he might do, wherupon he kept advancing upon me. As I backed up, holding my guitar away from him, I said "All I said was I would sell a cigarette for a quarter!"
Then, he wanted me to call him "sir," or he would throw me through "that window."
By then, we had the attention of the shopkeepers near my spot.
Three of them approached, saying "Let's see you talk to us like that!"
Rather than talk to them like that, the punks decided to walk off, with my cigarettes and the three bucks that I had in my case, which the girl or the dog must have snatched in the confusion.
The shop owners helped me locate my glasses and harmonica. They told me that I should have attacked him with my bottle of Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. I told them that it was still half full, and we had a little chuckle over that.
I wasn't in the mood for busking just then.
I was mostly pissed off over the fact that he took advantage of my vulnerability, with me having the guitar and harmonica around my neck, and being like "a sitting duck," and the sleazy way that the girl (or the dog) grabbed my cash while he was threatening me.
I got my pepper spray (thanks, Alex from Gilroy) and a heavy flashlight and went looking for them. I was going to hit him in the eyes with the spray and then aim for his head as hard as I could with the flashlight -then backhand the girl across the face and say "That was worth three bucks and some smokes!"
I won't kick the dog, though.
Then, I was harassed by a cop on Bourbon Street, who told me that I was playing in front of a residence, and that it was 1:30 a.m. I told him that the residents knew I was out there and didn't mind.
He started with the all-too-common idiotic question of "Do you want to go to jail?!?" which, to me wasn't much different from saying "How about calling me Sir!"
The punks will be easy to find, tonight; I'll recongize the dog if I see it again.
I can get him at a few spots where none of the witnesses will have seen anything at all when questioned, and have told me so much.
@Alex in California: Does the pepper spray completely expell with one use, or can you blast it twice? Do you have to aim directly for the eyes or does it fan out like a shotgun? Just wondering...
I will probably just point him out to any one of the people that have kind of "had my back" because of my musical "connections" and then just wait for something bad to happen to him. Something "French Quarter" bad...
OK you need to get out of there and ignore the goddamn gutter punks. I know, I know, I like the idea of shooting them for sport too, gutter punks and yuppies, they're one of the reasons I have so much ammo stockpiled. Think about it: I used to go out with a buddy and shooter prairie dogs in Eastern Colorado. Ever watch p-dogs through a 12X Leupold scope? They're the most innocent, carefree, creatures God created. The young play thorugh the grass like kittens. And we shot the things, for sport.
ReplyDeleteNow compare and contrast your average gutter punk (larval stage) or yuppie (evil adult stage). They think the world owes them a living, and thus they are entitled to beat up old ladies, cheat old ladies out of their pensions, sic their dogs on peopel, sic their lawyers on people, wear ugly clothes like piercings and God help us khakis with pleats on the front.
Don't worry there are plenty of gutter punks and yups to shoot when the time comes, out here. I call it pest exterminations. When the times comes. Which VERY sadly Isn't Yet.
Frankly, as bad as this sounds, and yes I have a few people on my "to kill" list then the Time Comes (tm), I'd probably just have given the damn chick a cig. The reason being, you're escaping there. Get in a fight with those maggots or any other maggots, and you're stuck there AGAIN.
Nice of the shop keepers to stick up for you. You might want to sleep in a different place and play it extra-careful until you're safely out of NOLA, how do you know those gutter punks don't know that you and Howard sleep by the sign? Go out and hunt 'em, and believe me, I look forward to such hunting trips when the time comes (tm), and now you're the aggressor. Good way to get a decade or more in jail, keep in mind the gutter punks have all got parents with high-dollar lawyers.
As for the pepper spray, you can spray it more than once, it spray out in about the same pattern as bug spray, and it's OK to try doing a trial spray or two to see how it works and get a feel for it. Don't get it on you, it's nasty stuff!
I'm glad I'm not out on the streets. I was beginning to get burned out over the short time I was near the streets. I'm sure I would turn into a vigilante, and I'm not sure how long vigilantes live, even smart ones. It's just not time yet, my friend.
Here's to your getting the hell out of there, get safely out here, get yourself situated in some kind of decent living situation, and when we're finally WROL (not an East Coast radio station, it means Without Rule Of Law) we'll be able to do some recreational extermination together. I have a feeling that very shortly after WROL times come, gutter punks are going to become an endangered species.
BTW if you go after them and don't kill 'em both, the girl IS going to rat you out. So if you go after them (and I recommend DO NOT) you have to make it final. This is why these things are so difficult with the law enforcement system in place. You have to either let it slide, or take your revenge totally, so that there are no witnesses and no survivors. There's no in-between, as in simply beating their ass and they've learned their lesson and everyone moves on with their life. What this means is, the present legal system is the best friend of petty thieves, punks, muggers, and unpleasant people in general. That's why there are so many of them these days. More crime means more cops with more pay .... it's a big racket and it's not meant to "protect and serve". It's for-profit.
ReplyDeleteWhen things have fallen down hard enough we are self-governing again, I suspect most gutter punks will have OD's not being able to handle a life where they'll have to work, or been shot for being gutter punks. It will be a glorious time.
Remember the "punk" in gutter punk. They're little rich kids who are slumming it, and if they get the beat-down, or even a torn hangnail, they'll call up Mommy/Daddy on their iPhone and in come the lawyers, and in goes YOU, to JAIL, for a LONG time.
Yeah, now that I think about it, the cops wouldn't have a hard time putting a name and SSN to "the skinny guy with the hat that plays guitar" and maybe a warrant like that would be extraditable, 'cause their lawyers would be seeking an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (a flashlight)/ attempted murder charge which might bring helecoptors hovering over Gilroy LOL
ReplyDeleteRemember, the gutter punks are yuppies in the embryonic stage. They actually believes the world, and yes that includes those far poorer than they are pretending to be, OWES them a living. However many possums and skunks and rats I've shot around this place, I plan to shoot far more of those pests when the present oppressive legal system withers away. They are shit, we all know it, but sadly they've just got too much protection FOR NOW.....
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it also, but the cop who "picked on you" for playing after the curfew, and you said No, it's OK because the people in the house are OK with you playing .... well I hate to say it's one of those things you just have to eat.... move on, the cop and the law don't care if it's OK with the people in the house, you're kinda lucky the cop didn't write you another damn ticket.
By the way about it taking 45 minutes to check email, get used to it. I've been watching the internet decay for a while now, it was probably at its peak in about 2000-2002, and has been decaying ever since. I would need a T1 now, to do what I used to do on dial-up.
ReplyDeleteHow this affects you is, within somewhere between a year and a few years, you won't be able to reach out to people like me, the Lidgleys, and others. You're going to be back where you'd be in the 1970s, back to local, face-to-face relationships and maybe the Pennysaver and index cards pinned on the notice board at laundromats. I say: Use the internet to prepare for when there's no Internet. You need to get to somewhere where you can find a place among the populace, where you won't be seen as a slumming tourist, "Whitey", etc. Which means either where you grew up, or out here in California because mopey white guys with guitars are a local product and you'll fit right in.