Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I was crawling into bed (early for me, but I think I might be sleepy enough), when I heard this pounding. Looked out the window and saw a police car. Stuck my head out a 3rd floor window to get a look at what was going on, and they seemed to be looking at the front door of the house next door. Four vehicles, one pointed the wrong direction (I'm on Lombard, a one-way street), and four officers. One of the cops spotted me and asked whether I'd called them.

I went downstairs and opened the front door; they asked me about the folks living next door, and went on pounding on that door. The dispatcher was saying something about a caller on a cell phone. Now I do call from a cell phone when I call the police (the only thing on my landline is the modem), but I hadn't called them tonight. And as for the folks next door, well I hadn't heard a peep out of them all day. (Sometimes they play their stereo too loudly, or I hear them on the stair. Today, nothing.) Finally one of the people next door came down and answered the door. Nobody there had called the police either.

Then came the call over the radio saying something about a suspect moving towards Broadway. Ping! I had the same thought as at least a couple of the cops did: "Hey, that's East Baltimore!" It was kind of interesting noting the simultaneously sheepish and really annoyed looks on their faces as they apologized for having gotten me and my neighbours out of bed because the dispatcher had sent them to West Lombard St. when they should've been going to East Lombard St.

(I can see how it would happen. The 911 and 311 operators have gotten a fair number of calls from me. (People entering the vacant house on the other side of mine, drug dealers in the Spring of 2001, kids playing with fire -- the aerosol can and cigarette lighter trick -- behind another vacant house, etc., etc.) So a cellular caller rings in and says they're in the same-numbered block of Lombard, probably forgets to specify East or West, and the dispatcher figures it's yet another run out to West Lombard. Still, it's simultaneously amusing, annoying, and disconcerting (how long has the person on East Lombard been waiting?).)

Let the record show, by the way, that while there have been a couple of exceptions, the police generally arrive pretty quickly when I do call them. I figure this is an anomaly rather than a sign of Big Problems with the city police dispatcher.

Okay, trying again to go to bed...

Actually got eight hours sleep for a change, despite the police confusion in the wee hours. Woke up feeling like I'd really slept, which is even more unusual. Not in agonizing pain, but enough to be a bit distracting, mostly lower back and upper arms. Went to pick up the confusing prescription, which is a whole 'nuther tale. Then I swung by the camera store -- I'm too broke to buy much film, but there are a couple kinds I've run out of that I really want to have on hand. Shock! Dismay! A sign on the door explained that Abbey Camera was going out of business today! This is a store I've been going to since I moved to Baltimore, where they greet me by name when I walk in. I went in to say my goodbyes. Funny, but the place actually looked smaller with the shelves and merchandise gone.

While I was out doing those things, I noticed that I'm having a lot of trouble walking today. My right leg doesn't want to hold me up reliably. Most likely explanation is pain that my brain is tuning out from consciousness but still reacting to with a flich response when I try to use those muscles. Anyhow, it's pretty disconcerting. Back started hurting worse while I was driving, too.

Anyhow, I'm trying to squeeze in a bunch of things that Need To Get Done, including getting my nails patched up and trying to exchange the guitar pickup that didn't work at Balticon and contacting the person who's figuring out how much money I can borrow if my mom co-signs and catching up on nearly a week backlog of email, and, of course, trying to finish the research project my boss has been waiting for. Wheee. Zoom, zoom, zoom, uh-oh, tired. Feh.

But I'm more cheerful than I'd expect to be, considering the disappointment last night and the sadness over the closing of my favourite camera store and the fear-inducing housing situation. And the weather is rather pleasant -- a bit warmer than I'd like but not as bad as the past couple days, nor as humid. The office (hottest room in the house) is only about 300K (27C, 80F) this afternoon, which is way too hot for clothes but not too bad naked. This is a HUGE improvement over most of this week!

A tune from this CD popped into my head earlier and wouldn't leave, so I dug the CD out of the stack and stuck it in the player. Dunno what made me start humming it in the first place.

Made it back out again to get my guitar picks repaired at the nail salon (hey, if I didn't play Scottish music really loudly, I wouldn't need acrylic on the three main strumming nails), and exchange a guitar pickup that didn't work. (Silly me, I didn't test it when I bought it -- it was a replacement for one of the same model that I'd used for a decade or so which finally had its cable die right near the pickup itself -- so the way I found out it was dead was on stage at Balticon when Allon, our sound man, made faces at me and sent someone up to plop a mic stand in front of me.) Got home and called the ... uh ... mortgage broker? ... the guy the realtor told me to call about borrowing money. He'd had a chance to pull my credit report, and my mother's, and let me know that with her as a co-signer we should be able to borrow enough for the miracle I need. Now to find out whether there's still time to make either of the two miracles I'm trying for work. Going for a last-minute save on the housing issue. Whee.

Really wish my father were alive. He was an accountant. He understood all this money stuff. I don't. Give me whacked-out network topologies, tell me to modify someone else's program in a language I've never seen, have me play a basse dance or a galliard, or ask me how to set the camera to compensate for really odd lighting, and I'm okay. Get into money matters and I feel lost.

Hmm. Fire trucks just pulled up in front of a house in the next block. I should put clothes back on and see if there's anything to photograph. Or maybe I'll just shoot from my third-floor front window with a long lens. (Lazy, lazy photographer. My excuse: I'm really tired.)

Anyhow, I'm gonna grab a roll of Tri-X and lean out the window. With luck I'll remember what else I was going to write when I get back to this later.