Wow, it is May already? I thought it was still April, all day I did, right until I got home, and looked at the little clock on the computer to find out that it wasn’t. Why does time seem to pass so slowly when you are a child, yet just fly by (faster than you can keep track of sometimes) when you are getting dangerously close to your second 29th birthday?
Well anyway, I didn’t post anything yesterday, yet again. This time I was trying to help my mom get a pretty picture for her pc wallpaper. No one sent me any links to the elusive ‘Peagasus and a Unicorn’ image that I spoke about a few days ago, so I tried to download one that I knew was totally filled with tracking software. I did a virus scan before I downloaded that file, as well as running ad aware, then I went ahead and downloaded it. Sure was a hell of a lot of tracking shit with it (39 total files to be exact) but it was all just your average Gator shit that was easily removed. The problem was that the actual photo that came with all that scumware still would not open. After I infected my pc with all that shit to try to make sure I got the image. It sucked, I was disappointed, I moved on.
I did find a relatively nice image for her to use as her wallpaper, keep in mind that she has only ever had a weird “PeoplePc” background which will over-write whatever you set as your wallpaper each time you restart the machine. The image that I sent her, and explained via the phone how to set as wallpaper can be seen here.
You could click on the picture to see it at the 800×600 resolution that it is for her wallpaper, but I really think that it looks way better at this particular size. Compare that image to a silly blue background that simply says “peoplepc” and you might see why she was so happy to have an actual image as her wallpaper.
• So it is not everyday that I come home from work to find my home surrounded by police cars, yet today was one of those days. It was well after dark when I got home, so all I could see was the flashing bars in the distance as I drove towards my house. I was hoping that they were not at my house, but as I grew closer it was pretty obvious that they were. What Really Sucked about the experience is that they had a “K-9” SUV looking thing on one corner (it looked like an ambulance from a distance) and then three cop cars surrounding the un-fenced portion of my house. As I was driving towards the house, my first instinct was that something had happened to my wife (praise the gods that this was not the case because, first, she was not hurt or involved in the madness in any way. Second, the police may have frowned on my speed reaching nearly 60m.p.h. in the three blocks that I had to drive to reach my house (that being in a 25mph zone, and the cops were obviously not interested in my actions).
One of the officers did stare intently as I parked my car and walked towards my gate, fortunately it was one of the officers that I know, by face more so than name, and he knows that I live here, after giving me a scolding about leaving a refrigerator outside for disposal without securing the door.
I am not really sure what actually happened right outside of my front door tonight. What I do know is that there was a drug sniffing dog involved, the vehicle in question was towed and it took about three hours for it all to come to an end. Now that it is all over I am just thankful that nothing happened to my wife (as I had suspected at first), or my house. But still, man that was a rather frightening experience. If they ( I say they even though I don’t know the number of people or the circumstances) were going to try to make a stand, my front door was only a few feet away, and very securely locked.
Which leads rather nicely into the short discussion of living in a town with so many prisons. The number of free residents in Florence compared to the number of inmates is about 1 person to 3 inmates. While on might think that this would lead to you fearing an escape that is just not the case. Sure, if everyone that was in prison here (in multiple prisons) were able to band together to take over the town we would certainly be fucked. That is something that just could not ever happen, as such we never think about it.
What we do think about is a single prisoner escaping (possibly two or three) and that is no big deal to the residents of our little town. You see the first thought on the mind of the guy who escapes is going to be to get as far away from the prison as fast as possible. There is a Highway between the prison and the town itself. If you happened to be in prison, then broke out, would you be more likely to run into town (and the local police) or try to put some distance between yourself and the prison? Your options are 1)Highway, 2)small town street, you have no weapon, you are wearing prison clothes, which do you choose?
I have been told, though I am not sure if it is true, that the last guy who escaped from prison here in Florence was caught at the Circle K store drinking a beer. If the story is true, he certainly didn’t want the highway to get out, he wanted the shortest possible path to a beer. The fact that I can understand his motive is enough to all but prove that any logical person will run like hell.
Long story short, I feel a lot safer living with all these prisons than I would feel if I was the owner of a liquor store in a place like L.A., at least my assailant will have no weapon and a burning desire to get the hell away as fast as possible.