May 28th, In Memoriam

Cassidy J. Wofford

July 5, 1988 to May 28, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Obituary Link

I met this young lady on an EMS call a couple of years before her tragic death by suicide. That was a suicide attempt where she had laid down in the middle of a back country road hoping someone would just run her over. An alert motorist saw her and called 911. I will not go into any of the details other than this; when we arrived at the hospital and I opened the doors to get the stretcher out, she was sitting on the stretcher facing me rocking back and forth, sucking her thumb, and weeping. As a Dad of a daughter myself, it absolutely broke my heart to see such a pathetic creature. To this day, my "bug-a-boo" ambulance call is what I call "the sad little girl." 12-23 years old, crying her eyes out, covered in cutter scars, sometimes telling tales of abuse, and being transported against her will by law enforcement for wanting to harm herself. My career and volunteer partners know this, and depending on the severity of the call will offer to tech it. I am getting better at handling these calls myself, but I think of Cassidy on every one.

From her clothing, she may have been a 1st Responder

One heckuva fish!

Proof she did have happy times in her short life

I had heard things about her life that if true, she had it rough, and those circumstances would drive anyone to the brink. I wish I could somehow turn back time and maybe do something more to prevent the final outcome. If you or someone you know is in crisis, PLEASE reach out for help to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Each year I do a benefit motorcycle ride called "Ride For Gage" that benefits the Jordan Porco Foundation for suicide prevention in September. I also see more than my share of successful suicides, and doing the death presumptions while the family is nearby SUCKS!

As a side note, the call involving Cassidy actually disturbed the other technicians, too. I was just the driver, but the other two were in the back doing patient care. In a casual conversation a few months later the subject of this call came up. Both guys said how it bothered them too, and how we probably should have talked earlier and gotten Critical Incident counseling as a group. Both of them are no longer in EMS, so they probably don't think about it any more.

Rest In Peace, Cassidy. I will never forget you.

The Failure of The GFDZ

 GFDZ = Gun Free Death Zone

 

Another mass murder in a school, this time in Texas. It's time for something completely different... can we please get rid of the GUN FREE DEATH ZONE designation for schools? Those that could protect kids are disarmed, while those that perpetrate these acts obviously don't give a shit about the law.

And Just Like That...

 ... I blew right past 200,000 total blog views in only 15 months of activity.

In my previous effort that lasted about 5 1/2 years I had like 85,000 total views which at last a fifth I attributed to bots and crawlers. Having the Google "sensitive content" warning up front keeps them at bay, and also prevents internet archive sites from capturing and storing content. If I hit the blog kill button, the only thing left is anything someone might have bothered to screen capture.

Since I hit the second 100,000 views faster than the first, I won't do another of these posts until 500K. Thank you to all my readers.

The Past Couple Of Days

Yeah, I know... posting has been light here on the blog, but trust me, I have been poking the hornet's nest and pushing the envelope on Twitter with tweets that previously would have gotten me suspended. They are so shit scared of Elon Musk they are too busy to bother with l'il ole me.

An Evening Ride

Last night after work I went out on "The Beast'" for a ride to get some supper. I had a hankerin' for a Whopper with cheese & bacon with some salty fries. Plus my wife had spent the afternoon in mystic with friends and had a large late lunch meaning I was on my own for supper. No problem, I headed to Burger King in Dayville to satisfy my hunger. It was an uneventful ride out and I got my food to go so I could eat outside by my bike and listen to my streaming tunes. There were lots of bikes out last night and several groups went through the intersection of RT. 101 and RT.12. There were a couple of Harleys and riders at the BK, but we just exchanged nods and kept to ourselves. On the road, I passed quite a few bikes and several had the `tude. I put up this post from March of last year about assholes that REFUSE to wave back at another rider because they believe any brand of bike that is not what they ride (*COUGH* Harley-Davidson *COUGH*) is a worthless piece of shit. Fine look like an ignorant dickhead when you don't wave back to a fellow biker, that's on you.

This Afternoon's Ride

My wife's mentally handicapped brother lives in a group home a few towns over. My wife picked him up yesterday afternoon to spend the night at our house. She is his conservator and both legal and medical power of attorney, and looks after him like the perfect example of what such a person should be. He's in his late fifties but has the mind of a child and works every day at a job he loves. He was there when I got home from work and he had already had supper as well. I was busy at my sportsman's club for the first half of the day today, and when I got home wasn't planning on going for a ride. I had to take my refuse to the dump and while I did that, my wife and her brother went out for ice cream. We all got back to the house within a few minutes of each other. When they had been home for a few minutes, my wife tells me her brother has something he wants to ask me. He wanted to know if I could take him for a ride on my motorcycle. Uh... okay.

Normally I wear proper riding attire, but for this little (13+ miles) cruise we were staying mostly on some nice twisty and hilly shaded back roads with minimal traffic. So, no helmets, sunglasses, shorts, and I wore a pair of regular old work boots and he wore sneakers. I cranked up the rear suspension to accommodate two adult men and my wife showed him how to mount and dismount while I held the bike steady. To my knowledge he had never been on one before, but he was like the perfect passenger. I told him he had to sit still and not try to lean away or lean in too much, but he did fine. He enjoyed the hell out of it and said he wasn't scared. The last leg of our trip was a two lane state road back to my road. I told him we were going to be going faster on that road but nothing crazy. Top speed was 55 MPH and he liked that. When we approached my driveway I warned him we were going to lean way over. No problem at all. In front of my garage I leaned on the horn hoping my wife would come out and assist with the dismount, but she didn't hear us. He got off by himself a little on the awkward side, but it worked out and I consider it a success because we didn't dump it.

Freak at the Restaurant

When we took her brother home this evening we all went out for dinner on the way. At the restaurant, one of the waitstaff was an obviously mentally ill male individual serving other tables. I first spotted this guy from behind, he was like 6'1" and I thought he was channeling LT. Jim Dangle from "Reno 911" with the short shorts he was wearing. Like these being worn by actor Tom Lennon portraying LT. Dangle:

Sheriff's Dept. or Village People tryouts?

 

Oh no... I then caught him from the front and realized the blue hair (why do all the freaks seem to have blue hair?), makeup, nail polish, girly shoes, and swishy way of walking were all part of his obvious "look at me" ensemble. Thank God he was not my waiter, because I would have asked for another table. Since I was armed as usual, I had to maintain proper situational awareness, but I turned my gaze away whenever he came in to my line of sight. Am I an insensitive dick, you'd better fuckin' believe it, `cause I'm not playing along or enabling such stupidity, and I am sick of having to be polite and ignore it when it is shoved in my face.

"Why.... "

".... does anyone need to carry a firearm to the grocery store?" Fudds will ask. Why don't you fuckers ask the DEAD SHOPPERS at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, NY.

I didn't hear about this mass murder until a little while ago. Earlier this evening my wife and I went to dinner then to BJ's. You better believe I was carrying, because I always do.

The question I have is; how could this possibly happen in the gun control mecca of NY? Perhaps it's time to try something different than disarming the good guys?