Just got back from vacation! Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama. Went to Kentucky Down Under yesterday and pet some kangaroos. Woohoo! Well, gotta go visit Mike's grave before it gets dark and/or starts raining. Make sure those flowers are doing okay.
Later gator.
Okie dokie artichoke, I'm back. Flowers are doing fin
e. Brought my little watering can and watered the plants and flowers. (some of them are real, others are silk b/c I don't trust myself to have all real yet!) The grass needs to be cut, which is odd, b/c this is a typically a well manicured cemetery. The sod is so grown together, you can barely tell that it's a new grave. The name plate is finally up. Everything was the same only now there is this obnoxious sign on the gate of the cemetery saying that our mayor has declared this a "Crime Free Zone" and something about not committing crimes in here. Now, I've never been one for breaking the law or vandalizing cemeteries in any way, but I saw that sign and the teenage punk in my head said, "I'll show you a crime free zone you f-ing so and so mayor, you!" Well, my teenage punk doesn't really like to cuss. Anyhow, I wondered what the heck brought this on. After I left Mike's grave, I swung by to a neighboring cemetery to visit another friend, and that place had the same sign. I don't know if something happened while I was gone, or if the mayor just came up with this to fix something that 
wasn't broken. He sure likes to do that. Anything that puts his name up more and makes for a photo op. Seriously, dude.
wasn't broken. He sure likes to do that. Anything that puts his name up more and makes for a photo op. Seriously, dude. If I was going to go into a cemetery to drink, vandalize, and/or trespass, somehow this sign just seems to make me want to do it more rather than less. Maybe that's just my twisted psyche. But then again, when I was living in Belfast, it seemed that any time a fence was put up, it was quickly torn down. Same things with walls. It becomes like a challenge. Only, not only will I knock down the fence, I will also set fire to it. That doesn't seem like effective problem solving. Or at Purdue back in 1999 when the girls basketball team won the championship and there were riots. It was either the next night or the next year (I don't remember) but the police were sitting in cars across from the largest all male dorm, Cary Quad, where most of the mayhem began, and it created a stand-off. The police were being pre-emptive, but the guys in Cary weren't even out there and may not have even gone out there, but when they saw the police out there, curiosity, machismo, or both, had guys pouring out of the dorm, just standing on the front lawn, facing the police. It was bizarre.
Or there was this kid I was working with in Belfast and he used to climb out windows, cars, whatever, so needless to say, we had to form some sort of barrier between him and any escape hatch. He was happily distracted by some sort of activity when I noticed our close proximity to the un-manned door. I tried to be as discreet as I possibly could in my moving towards the door, like acting all casual *doo doo doo, what's over here* kind of thing, but he saw me heading that way and stopped what he was doing and made a beeline for the door. He didn't even want to go out it, but seeing me trying to keep him from doing so infuriated him and set off this reflex to go for what he can't have. To go against authority.
These cemetery signs just seem like a good way to piss people off and not do much else. There's my five cents, Mr. Mayor.
ahem. Anyhow, we were all very proud of our brave co-worker and started asking each other if we knew the correct way to handle a choking. So I came across this:
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