I Was Wrong, Cont'd...

Body found on Corona freeway likely suicide

The body of a 51-year-old Riverside man was found early Tuesday morning, May 29, in the westbound lanes of Highway 91 at the Interstate 15 freeway interchange in Corona, where it appeared the man fell or jumped from the freeway connector road above.

Preliminary findings of the ongoing investigation suggest that the death of Robert Rowley, whose identity was released by the Riverside County coroner’s office, might be suicide, said Officer Maurice Walker, a spokesman for the Highway Patrol’s Riverside office. An unattended vehicle registered to Rowley was found on the connector road 80 feet above where his body was found.

The news story got the time wrong. I left the house at 2:30. This location is 25 miles south of that and I had stopped for gas. It was actually about 3:00 when I saw the man sitting in his car.

I should have followed my first instincts. If I did, he might likely still be here.
Damn, this has been a tough two days for me, but nothing compared to what his family is going through.
Pray for them.

Yes, I'm drinking. It helps right now.

I Was Wrong

I leave for work extra early for my week start-up duties. This usually means I'm on the road from 2:30 to 3:30 a.m. to arrive at the plant by 4a.m.
Generally speaking, at this hour I have the roads largely to myself.
This morning, while making the transition from one freeway to the next through a very high overpass I noticed a white car pulled over to the side at the very peak of the transition.
There is no stopping lane there, yet there is bit of a buffer... maybe one-half car width separating the striped lane from the 4ft high concrete safety wall/guard rail.
The running lights of the suspect vehicle were on, but not the hazards.
That's stupid, I thought. Somebody won't see that the car isn't moving and he'll be receiving a large freeway-speed enema.
And, that's one hell of a place for a breakdown. Why doesn't he put the car in "N" and roll himself down and out of the way?
As I passed the stalled car, I took a look to see if it was occupied. It was. Seemed the driver was just sitting and waiting.
I thought to pull over and lend a hand. This was an uber-bad place to be stalled. Somebody's gonna get dead if he sits there like that.
No, I kept driving.
Much too worrisome of a location to be playing Good Samaritan. Cars fly through this connector at 70-plus and all I needed was one of them to be caught unaware before my ass got imbedded into a radiator. Such an event would likely hurt a lot.
Besides, it won't be long before a cop came cruising through anyway. Better let the cop do his job while I arrive safely at my own.

I carried that distressed driver's face in my mind all the way to work.
Should I have?
Yes. It's always right to help another.
No. How stupid would it be to get radiatored over an imbecile?

I played a game of ethical tug of war in my head for the next 25 miles.

I got to work and set about tending to my duties... yet, that image of the dude behind the wheel stayed with me. It was nagging me.
Damn... I should have pulled over and got the dude off off the interchange.
No. If I did, I may not be here thinking about it right now.
Darwin's Law, ya know?. Let it be, or it could have been me that got Darwined.

Cal and Francisco arrived at the plant around 5am. They are usually a bit earlier but talked of the traffic jam.
Huh? The lanes are free flowing at 4:00.
"Dude, there was an accident or something, right where the 15 connects to the 91."
"Yeah, the freeway was closed for like a mile"
"Didn't you see it? There was a body lying in the road, and the coroner van was there. Three Highway Patrols, too"
Where was this?
"Right where that big overpass, under it"
"He wouldn't see it. He was coming from the other direction."
"Oh, that's right... yeah..."
"Dude you missed it."
What happened?
"I don't know. No smashed cars, so I don't know what kind of accident or something..."
Directly under the interchange?
"Yeah. Right under. It was just right there. The body was laying on the pavement."
Fuck!
I was visibly upset, and they noticed.
"What did you see?"
Just a car. Parked at the top the interchange.

That face in the window haunted me all day.
That face still haunts me now, 16hrs later.
I should have done something.
Anything.
I should have listened to that voice in my head.
But which voice?
I should have stopped...
I wish I had stopped.
Fuck Darwin.
I should have stopped.

Reality Shows That I Appreciate

I've never gotten into reality programming in the past but it seems some producers  have finally hit on a few things I can get on board with viewing and sold their wares to NatGeo.

Yeah, all the good stuff seems to be on NatGeo now days.

What I like about some of these shows is that they provide the subjects a venue to explain themselves to outsiders on their own terms.

"Sister Wives",  featuring a Mormon polygamist and his four wives pulled this off probably the best of all of them. I enjoyed the first half-season before moving on. To their credit, they did a O.K. job of stating their case in the face of much detraction. I'm not a fan of the polygamy idea, but hey, to each his own. Live and let live.

"All-American Muslim", now defunct, showed me nothing that I didn't already know about American-Muslims from my years in my hometown of Anaheim. I thought it was important that the hicks, hayseeds, and christianist retards of the country see for themselves that these folks are really no different than the rest of us if given the chance.

"Wild Justice", is still my favorite. I like watching game wardens from my home state trapesing through the brush catching poachers. Well... I like the idea of catching poachers anyway. In this case, it's the scenery that grabs me, that part of California that is very unlike what everybody thinks California is.

"Amish Out Of Order" is another winner. It follows the lives of various Amish-raised young men after they leave the confines of their closed society and try to build life outside of it in the real world. Very informative from where I sit. Entertaining too, which is the whole point.

Like I said, reality programming such as this provides a platform for fringe groups, or 'societies existing out of the main' if you will, to present themselves in a brighter light. To tell their story, their way, on their terms.
Then there is "Navajo Cops".
(Insert great, big, fat, juicy ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!! here.)
O.K, you injun savages.
This is your chance to tell your story.
We gave you a camera and crew.
And all we get is one fucking drunken injun after another:
Drunken injuns performing domestic violence.
Drunken injuns shooting guns.
Drunken injuns living in trailors.
Drunken injuns driving trucks.
Drunken injuns getting drunker...

Hey, Navajos, did your tribal council actually approve of this message?
Sheesh.
Now I know why some of my ancestry chose to become French.

**Bonus Cool Points if you could name the band in the photo. I doubt that even the illustrious Mr. D gets this one.

Doing My Duty

Fuck Brett Kimberlin.

Drunken Bully Cows

Police say a roving group of cows crashed a small gathering in a Massachusetts town and bullied the guests for their beer.

 Riter says the herd high-tailed it for the backyard and then he heard screaming. He says when he ran back there he saw the cows had chased off some young adults and were drinking their beers.

Cows. Can't trust them. Give them a beer and they'll take the whole case.

This Is Wrong

Straight up, pure, unadulterated wrong.

Still busy...
Hang tight, I will be back.