hushed gray: the Kevin chronicles

Friday, May 11, 2007

I be tired
It has been a week alright. Much work and not necessarily much else--though I did get a little bit of physical activity in at least a couple of days.

On Monday I was sent out to cover an evacuation of a government office building downtown. Police locked the place down and searched it after there were rumors a gunman was inside. It turned out that was not the case. Last I heard about it, the police now claim a man (to whom I'll refer as "Man A") claimed his brother (to whom I'll refer as "Man B") forced him at gunpoint to go to the state attorney's office to ask that assault charges against Man B's wife (who is also Man A's ex-wife, and to whom I'll refer as "Woman C") be dropped. Man A had apparently filed a police report claiming Woman C stabbed him in the stomach with a screwdriver (which police now say never happened). They also say Man B didn't actually force Man A to go to the state attorney's office. Anyway, this Man A has a young daughter, which would make Man B the girl's uncle--and quite possibly her stepfather as well. Boy howdy.

On Tuesday I was called in early, then sent to Baker County where a fast-moving wildfire (which fire lightning started in the Okefenokee Swamp, and which fire has now burned through to Columbia County) forced some evacuations. It seems very, very insensitive to go up to someone who's probably wondering whether his or her house is going to burn down and ask, "How do you feel?" Such is my job.

By Wednesday Subtropical Storm Andrea had formed, its center a little more than 100 miles off the coast. So work was crazy doing "team coverage" of the storm and its potential impact on the area. By lunchtime Thursday it had been downgraded to a subtropical depression, and by midnight the NHC had issued its final advisory.

I think the general consensus is that Andrea turned out to do more harm that good. We got very little rain out of it, but lots of wind, which stirred up the various wildfires. Which was obviously not good. There was actually some talk today of Interstate 10 being shut down well west of town due to the smoke, but the last I heard that had not happened yet.

Not really any noteworthy mail to mention this week, just a rather bland selection of sales papers and the occasional non-profit solicitation. Did get my first "Forever" stamp--used before the postage rate increase that begins Monday (you'll now need to put 41¢ worth of postage on each letter). Since the "Forever" stamp will henceforth be worth whatever the current first-class rate is (regardless of what was paid for the stamp), we're in a small window where using the stamp actually overpays the postage by 2¢--that will never again be the case.

For what it's worth, "bugaboo" is an actual word--one that has been around since the mid-1700's. That was a rather surprising etymological discovery, at least for me.

I did want to mention that I've signed up for an account at Stan's NetChess, which for all practical purposes is a "correspondence chess" system. You don't have to play an entire game in one sitting, which has its benefits. Anyway, I'd certainly welcome any challengers--it's a free sign-up.

posted at 9:45 pm | permalink | 1 comment

Archives (by topic)
LEGOs | Web & technology | Work