The Bucket People Are Back...and the Network Is Down
The network at work is down. Again. That means no Internet, no email, no warrant database, no CJIS...no work. Only I have to be here anyway, so I've spent the majority of the morning reading National Geographic, working on various piddly projects, and listening to Johnny gripe about the lack of network--but mostly about the lack of Internet--and how bored he is. No one ran into the pole this time--that would be simply too priceless--it's just a normal fart in the crappy State system. Technicians are supposedly in the building across the street now, trying to fix it. We'll see.
If anyone is wondering, this entry is being written in Notepad and pasted into LJ once I get home, which will be my new modus operandi of posting to my journal since the Department of Public Safety has denied us our Internet fun.
In the meantime, I have a pile of warrants that I'd really rather not leave until Monday, but--like I said--no CJIS....
I went out to lunch today since I needed something to do and I haven't had Panera Bread for a record two weeks. On the way out, I checked on the moths. They are continuing to multiply. I meant to bring the digital camera and forgot; hopefully they'll still be there--and I'll remember the camera--on Monday. One was on the steps so I moved her to the porch so that Johnny wouldn't step on her on his way out.
Meanwhile, the bucket people are back on Route 175. You know, the people who stand on street corners and collect charitable contributions in big plastic buckets. I object to the bucket people on a number of levels.
One, they don't stay on their corners anymore but walk out into traffic including when the traffic is moving. I'll leave my commentary on the foolishness of frolicking in traffic within an hour's drive of DC and in a very rich county where perceived self-importance is in proportion to the average income for now. Rather, I will note that it's very annoying to miss a turn light at a busy intersection (where one must then wait five minutes for the next green) because cars are swerving to avoid the large grinning woman walking down between the lanes of traffic, waving with one hand and brandishing a bucket in the other. Someone should let her know that pissing off central Maryland drivers is not a good way to eke quarters out of them...she's more likely to end up the hood ornament on someone's Mercedes after the driver suffers a bout of rage- or cell-phone-induced blindness.
My other issue with the bucket people is their sheer proliferation. One day, driving home, I encountered them on four separate street corners, competing with the Latinos selling roses and the homeless people just released from the Jessup prisons for my attention. And they're out there every day, through the entire summer, fall, and some of the winter too. Even if I was interested in donating to their charity (and more on that in a minute), I'd hardly do it on four consecutive street corners!
I guess I just get tired of seeing them sometimes, as terrible as that sounds. :^P
Plus I'm a little wary of their charity. They work for some Christian organization to "help the poor," which is fine on the surface. I have no problem with religious-based charities...until they start doling our their charity to only certain "suitable" individuals. Like the Catholic charities that would sooner have a child sit for his or her entire childhood in the foster care system than adopt the child to a gay couple. In the instance of Christian-based homeless shelters and soup kitchens, my misgivings come from the fact that a significant portion of these organizations will only help people who agree to sit for a religious sermon. I'm sorry, but recruiting people for one's faith based on hunger, need, and desperation is, imho, a rather sick way of going about doing business. How is it Christian to turn a person out to sleep in the below-freezing temperatures characteristic of Maryland winters because he is a Moslem, for example, or simply not willing to sit and listen to their religious blatherings? I'd sooner give my money to charities that help all people, not just Christians or people open to Christian indoctrination.
I don't know about this particular group of bucket people; I've never researched their organization because, frankly, I don't trust that if I called and asked, I'd be given an honest answer if they knew that a donation was on the line if they gave a "wrong" answer. Plus, I get a religious nutjob vibe off of them. When it's below freezing and women are standing on a street corner in dresses with bare ankles for hours on end, I begin to question....
That said, there are bucket people to whom I donate, but they don't see the need to stand on half the street corners in Jessup every afternoon for half the year. I always give to the animal shelter or the animal rescue people, and when the firefighters are out passing a boot around, I always toss my loose change into it. Unless the firefighters are going to refuse to save someone for a burning building because s/he is not a Christian, then I see them as far more deserving of my money.
On a completely unrelated note, I spoke a moment ago with one of the women who works in the house/office next-door to mine, and apparently, the State geeks have come to check the network and proclaimed it a Verizon problem. Meaning that it's actually not the State's stoopid network for once but rather our rickety old phone line, which has a tendency to either 1) get run over by lawnmowers or 2) go kaput for no reason. The verdict: It won't be fixed until Monday, at the earliest. And Brian (one of the warrant officers) was just in to drop off eleven more warrants in addition to the twenty-three I already have waiting to be run. I wonder if the scanner still works. I don't recall that it's on the network but is connected directly to my PC....
*sigh*
So to those whom I owe emails, sorry...they won't be getting done until tonight (maybe, probably not) or tomorrow (possibly) or maybe even Sunday. Grrr. *shakes fist at wrench in the cogs*
On a positive note--because what bureaucrat can't find solace in the weekend?--Bobby and I have a date tonight for a breakfast-dinner at Eggspectation and then we're seeing An Inconvenient Truth. (I think that's what it's called...the global-warming movie made by Al Gore?) So I'll probably be on a soapbox at some point tonight. I've recently felt a resurgence of my old environmental activist, visiting the rainforest and getting involved with diving. Bobby and I--as soon as we have our open-water certification--are going to get involved with the organization of divers that are working to restore the Chesapeake Bay. They rebuild oyster banks and the like. Having taken samples of the bottom of the Bay, I don't know why I'd want to dive down into that, but all for a good cause, right? :^P
Eek. I'm really rambling outside the cut. I think this journaling in Wordpad will be dangerous because there's no UPDATE JOURNAL button to force me to shut up. I can just keep rambling and rambling and adding on over the course of hours. And the State thought that they were solving something by denying me my LJ??
If anyone is wondering, this entry is being written in Notepad and pasted into LJ once I get home, which will be my new modus operandi of posting to my journal since the Department of Public Safety has denied us our Internet fun.
In the meantime, I have a pile of warrants that I'd really rather not leave until Monday, but--like I said--no CJIS....
I went out to lunch today since I needed something to do and I haven't had Panera Bread for a record two weeks. On the way out, I checked on the moths. They are continuing to multiply. I meant to bring the digital camera and forgot; hopefully they'll still be there--and I'll remember the camera--on Monday. One was on the steps so I moved her to the porch so that Johnny wouldn't step on her on his way out.
Meanwhile, the bucket people are back on Route 175. You know, the people who stand on street corners and collect charitable contributions in big plastic buckets. I object to the bucket people on a number of levels.
One, they don't stay on their corners anymore but walk out into traffic including when the traffic is moving. I'll leave my commentary on the foolishness of frolicking in traffic within an hour's drive of DC and in a very rich county where perceived self-importance is in proportion to the average income for now. Rather, I will note that it's very annoying to miss a turn light at a busy intersection (where one must then wait five minutes for the next green) because cars are swerving to avoid the large grinning woman walking down between the lanes of traffic, waving with one hand and brandishing a bucket in the other. Someone should let her know that pissing off central Maryland drivers is not a good way to eke quarters out of them...she's more likely to end up the hood ornament on someone's Mercedes after the driver suffers a bout of rage- or cell-phone-induced blindness.
My other issue with the bucket people is their sheer proliferation. One day, driving home, I encountered them on four separate street corners, competing with the Latinos selling roses and the homeless people just released from the Jessup prisons for my attention. And they're out there every day, through the entire summer, fall, and some of the winter too. Even if I was interested in donating to their charity (and more on that in a minute), I'd hardly do it on four consecutive street corners!
I guess I just get tired of seeing them sometimes, as terrible as that sounds. :^P
Plus I'm a little wary of their charity. They work for some Christian organization to "help the poor," which is fine on the surface. I have no problem with religious-based charities...until they start doling our their charity to only certain "suitable" individuals. Like the Catholic charities that would sooner have a child sit for his or her entire childhood in the foster care system than adopt the child to a gay couple. In the instance of Christian-based homeless shelters and soup kitchens, my misgivings come from the fact that a significant portion of these organizations will only help people who agree to sit for a religious sermon. I'm sorry, but recruiting people for one's faith based on hunger, need, and desperation is, imho, a rather sick way of going about doing business. How is it Christian to turn a person out to sleep in the below-freezing temperatures characteristic of Maryland winters because he is a Moslem, for example, or simply not willing to sit and listen to their religious blatherings? I'd sooner give my money to charities that help all people, not just Christians or people open to Christian indoctrination.
I don't know about this particular group of bucket people; I've never researched their organization because, frankly, I don't trust that if I called and asked, I'd be given an honest answer if they knew that a donation was on the line if they gave a "wrong" answer. Plus, I get a religious nutjob vibe off of them. When it's below freezing and women are standing on a street corner in dresses with bare ankles for hours on end, I begin to question....
That said, there are bucket people to whom I donate, but they don't see the need to stand on half the street corners in Jessup every afternoon for half the year. I always give to the animal shelter or the animal rescue people, and when the firefighters are out passing a boot around, I always toss my loose change into it. Unless the firefighters are going to refuse to save someone for a burning building because s/he is not a Christian, then I see them as far more deserving of my money.
On a completely unrelated note, I spoke a moment ago with one of the women who works in the house/office next-door to mine, and apparently, the State geeks have come to check the network and proclaimed it a Verizon problem. Meaning that it's actually not the State's stoopid network for once but rather our rickety old phone line, which has a tendency to either 1) get run over by lawnmowers or 2) go kaput for no reason. The verdict: It won't be fixed until Monday, at the earliest. And Brian (one of the warrant officers) was just in to drop off eleven more warrants in addition to the twenty-three I already have waiting to be run. I wonder if the scanner still works. I don't recall that it's on the network but is connected directly to my PC....
*sigh*
So to those whom I owe emails, sorry...they won't be getting done until tonight (maybe, probably not) or tomorrow (possibly) or maybe even Sunday. Grrr. *shakes fist at wrench in the cogs*
On a positive note--because what bureaucrat can't find solace in the weekend?--Bobby and I have a date tonight for a breakfast-dinner at Eggspectation and then we're seeing An Inconvenient Truth. (I think that's what it's called...the global-warming movie made by Al Gore?) So I'll probably be on a soapbox at some point tonight. I've recently felt a resurgence of my old environmental activist, visiting the rainforest and getting involved with diving. Bobby and I--as soon as we have our open-water certification--are going to get involved with the organization of divers that are working to restore the Chesapeake Bay. They rebuild oyster banks and the like. Having taken samples of the bottom of the Bay, I don't know why I'd want to dive down into that, but all for a good cause, right? :^P
Eek. I'm really rambling outside the cut. I think this journaling in Wordpad will be dangerous because there's no UPDATE JOURNAL button to force me to shut up. I can just keep rambling and rambling and adding on over the course of hours. And the State thought that they were solving something by denying me my LJ??