The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: side_show on March 25, 2011, 02:20:04 pm
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As most of you know my neighbourhood is riddled with crime, and last night was no exception. I'm not particularly caviler about it, but I also do my best to keep to myself and stay separate from the problem people.
Last night, as I was getting into bed for the night, I suddenly heard men walking around on our deck and talking in an urgent tone. I checked out the window, and saw a man who I didn't recognize, talking to someone who was on my front deck saying "You have to come back. You have to come back" as he was walking away, leaving whoever he was talking to on our deck. What was unusual is that the man was only wearing a T-shirt and sweats and it was only around 6 F outside. I went down to check if whoever he was talking to was still on our deck. It was a guy from four houses over named Mauricio who has always creeped me out and who I regularly see intoxicated around the street. He was sitting on our front steps staring off into space. He too was only wearing a T-shirt. He didn't see me, and I assumed he was drunk, so I just went back up to bed.
Shortly after getting into bed, I realized there were more noises outside and checked the window. 5 police cruisers and two fire trucks had all arrived in total silence within less than 10 minutes. They were all focused on the house where Mauricio lives. I went to sleep.
This morning I woke up as usual to the radio and the local news. The situation was one of three stabbings in the city overnight. I went out to walk the dog, and to my horror the wooden front stairs of our house are covered in blood. I had assumed that Mauricio was just drunk, but now I’m thinking he was either the victim or the person doing the stabbing due to the amount of blood.
I called the police to make a statement, but since whoever was stabbed doesn’t want to press charges, they weren’t interested in hearing from me. They tell me I can feel free to clean the blood up right away since they don’t need to collect any evidence.
So, I’m stuck with the disgusting task of cleaning up a bunch of blood. Challenges related to this include the fact that it’s still below freezing here. Resources I found on line seem to suggest using, rubber gloves, rags and a hot water and bleach solution is my best bet. I’m pretty sure the blood has really soaked into the wood, as the stairs are way past due for staining. I’m not even sure if it will come out of the side walk. Any additional suggestions are welcome.
So um… yeah. Gross.
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Yikes. Definitely bleach that shit. It might not take care of the stain, but don't mess around with those bloodborne pathogens.
After that, well...the sun should bleach some of it out over time, but you might consider putting a dark stain on your deck to mask it.
I am sort of glad I don't have any advice for you on this.
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Best suggestion from a coworker "I would move."
We got our house as part of a special in-fill housing program, and I continue to be torn by the $45,000 we will lose if we move before our 10 years is up (in a little over four years). We'd have to repay it to the housing program if we don't stick out the full ten years. That I want to have a child within that time frame increases my conflicted feelings.
I was always planning on slipping out early today, but I was hoping to use the time to chill out, not clean up blood. There's a crime scene clean up company locally, but I called him and he said it basically wasn't worth my while to have him out. He walked me through what to do though - a solution of hot water and bleach, pour bucket over the blood, repeat.
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That was nice of the crime scene cleanup guy. Man, I wonder who thinks to themself "I want to clean up crime scenes when I grow up."
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An article about the stabbing, which was the first of three last night. (deleted because I realized it basically gave directions to exactly where I live) With the victim apparently taken to the hospital in unstable condition, I'm thinking my neighbour was the stabber, not the victim. This makes it more disturbing on some level. Sure glad I didn't open the door when he was sitting there dripping blood.
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That was nice of the crime scene cleanup guy. Man, I wonder who thinks to themself "I want to clean up crime scenes when I grow up."
This was the guy I spoke to. With his experience as an autopsy assistant, I would imagine he saw that there was a need for clean up services. (http://www.winnipegfuneraltransferservices.com/about_the_owner) He was very nice. He said he would be more than willing to clean it up but honestly felt I could clean it up easily without much effort, while for him a call to the scene is an initial $250 plus additional charges related to the clean up once accessed.
I watched a segment on a news-magazine style program about a company in California that does crime scene clean up, and it was founded by a lady who had to clean up after a close family member's suicide. She said something along the lines that she believed that no one who had experienced such a loss should be put through the trauma of having to clean up the results.
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You've heard a variety of this from me before, but:
Jesus fuck! The worst thing I've had to put up with in my neighborhood was a Burger King bag full of used syringes.
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That was nice of the crime scene cleanup guy. Man, I wonder who thinks to themself "I want to clean up crime scenes when I grow up."
This guy (http://beebo.org/smackerels/crime-scene.html), for one.
If the stories of his first couple of jobs weren't so grisly, I'd link to it from my blog, but...I don't want to spring that on unsuspecting people on their lunch hour.
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This guy (http://beebo.org/smackerels/crime-scene.html), for one.
If the stories of his first couple of jobs weren't so grisly, I'd link to it from my blog, but...I don't want to spring that on unsuspecting people on their lunch hour.
That guy clearly enjoys the cool factor on some level. Compairing himself to the Pulp Fiction character and such.
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Jesus fuck! The worst thing I've had to put up with in my neighborhood was a Burger King bag full of used syringes.
Ugh, Burger King.
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Our block is between a Burger King and a local fried Chicken chain restaurant, so you can imagine the disgusting artifacts that are emmerging from the spring melt. Nothing is worse than the Burger King crap emerging from the snow. My dog is all "soggy, partially thawed three month old Whopper? Yes Please!" Bleh.
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Smells, I Googled your address from that article. Hey, street view! Are you telling me that idyllic tree lined street with rows of houses and manicured lawns and white picket fences (literally) is the crime ridden hell hole you've been telling us about all of these years? From your vivid descriptions of what goes on around there I had it pictured very differently. I was expecting to see the street strewn with empty spray paint cans and junkie squatters passed out in front of run down vacant houses.
Wow, looks can be deceiving.
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Streetview doesn't clearly show that that one empty lot is empty due to arson, or which houses are abandoned, or that most of the fences are rotten and falling over. I'm not sure how you missed all the abandoned borded up houses though. Streetview is blocked at my office, otherwise I'd take you on a better tour.
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This whole thread reminds me of Sunshine Cleaning (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862846/)
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Wow, that guy from the crime scene clean up business was right. All it took was 10 gallons of bleach and water solution, a bucket, a pair of rubber gloves and a dollar-store scrub brush and about 20 minutes to clean it all up. There's some splotches of blood left in the snow, but those will melt away au natural soon enough.
Something I have learned today: there is nothing more surreal than cleaning up blood from a crime scene as kids skip happily down the street because it's the beginning of Spring Break.
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Our block is between a Burger King and a local fried Chicken chain restaurant, so you can imagine the disgusting artifacts that are emmerging from the spring melt. Nothing is worse than the Burger King crap emerging from the snow. My dog is all "soggy, partially thawed three month old Whopper? Yes Please!" Bleh.
Break-up is something I really don't miss from living in Alaska. Thawing dog shit everywhere.
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Break-up is something I really don't miss from living in Alaska. Thawing dog shit everywhere.
Even worse is when the shit dissolves into a large poo puddle. I should note the spring thaw always involves finding used syringes.
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Streetview doesn't clearly show that that one empty lot is empty due to arson, or which houses are abandoned, or that most of the fences are rotten and falling over. I'm not sure how you missed all the abandoned borded up houses though. Streetview is blocked at my office, otherwise I'd take you on a better tour.
I looked too, and it all seemed incredibly well kept. Perhaps we are looking at the wrong block? If not, even the abandoned houses are nicer in Canada.
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I used to be in our streetview pictures and they've put up new ones. I'm kind of bummed.
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I'm in one of the streetview photos for the block where I live and for some reason I find this incredibly cool. I mean, it's not like I haven't got stuff all over the internet, so what's the big deal? I guess it's just the serendipity or something.
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I looked too, and it all seemed incredibly well kept. Perhaps we are looking at the wrong block? If not, even the abandoned houses are nicer in Canada.
That's interesting. I'm not sure what you're looking at because I just spent a far too depressing time looking at streetview of my street, staring at the boarded up houses, empty lots and graffiti, and when you look at the street view of the park about four houses down from my house, which is empty of children on a fine summer day, there is the regular group of solvent drinkers/sniffers sitting on the only picnic table getting intoxicated. One of the people in the photo is likely the guy they found dead in the same park the next spring. The drug house across from mine was captured before the dealers got evicted, and you can see the smashed in window, open door, the abandoned row house on the corner, across from the park is boarded up and covered in graffit, and you can see the piles of garbage and used matress on the part of that lot that faces the street... plus I could point you to two abandoned lots (one due to arson) and a house that has been totally boarded up for 8+ yrs all within my block.
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I looked again and found one building with boarded up windows, but then something happened and I was lost on the Trans-Canada Highway. Street view is an amazing thing but I find it really hard to navigate.
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I looked again too. I saw an apartment building that is boarded up. I was looking for the park with the meth drinkers, but couldn't find it. I found a park, but no meth drinkers. I traversed your street from Some random Indian place that you would never find in a million years to the Exxo station. But I'm with Wombat, Google street view is hard to navigate. I actually got lucky. I went back to get the address from your post and saw where you had removed it, smart move. But it was still typed into my google toolbar. Thanks Google.
Anyway, Here's my house (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=4815+Norhill+Houston+tx&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=4815+Norhill+Blvd,+Houston,+TX+77009&gl=us&ei=2R2NTdXWHYz4gAeO7I2jDQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ8gEwAA) so we're even. You can see my artcar in the garage, but the one in the driveway is missing. If you look up the street (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1100+Peddie+St,+Houston,+TX+77009&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=1100+Peddie+St,+Houston,+TX+77009&gl=us&ei=qB-NTd79Cob3gAeZrpWjDQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ8gEwAA) you can see it, but when you get in front of my house it's gone. Weird.
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It is weird and foggy where you live, Paul.
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Street view is neat, but creepy. If you go to this link (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3373+Mulberry+Street,+Toledo,+OH&aq=&sll=41.684098,-83.531542&sspn=0.011987,0.027595&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=3373+Mulberry+St,+Toledo,+Lucas,+Ohio+43608&ll=41.684964,-83.531585&spn=0.005384,0.027595&z=15&layer=c&cbll=41.684968,-83.531564&panoid=Vu-svHMWgcrZRN9U_qbcqg&cbp=11,248.38,,1,3.31), you can see my grandmother and step-grandfather sitting on lawn chairs in their driveway people-watching like they used to do after my grandma got too frail to go square-dancing (how they met).
It's cool that a little part of their daily routine lives on, but it's also kind of painful. Like ghosts, their disembodied presence only reminds us of what once was.
Our current house still has the previous owner's cars in the driveway, but you can see my minivan in front of our previous residence (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=135+Louben+Valley+Ct,+Cary,+NC+27513&layer=c&sll=35.794806,-78.785352&cbp=11,316.29,,0,6.07&cbll=35.795431,-78.78533&hl=en&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=135+Louben+Valley+Ct,+Cary,+Wake,+North+Carolina+27513&ll=35.795434,-78.78533&spn=0.001462,0.006899&z=17&panoid=Bfppfse9cJGwpTBC6KeoCw).
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Groovy - there's a 3D View option now, with the red/blue technique. Pity I don't have any glasses.
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Here's home. (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2810+Christianburg+Road,+Bagdad,+KY&layer=c&sll=38.280865,-85.082430&cbp=11,341.08,,0,1.08&cbll=38.279813,-85.075568&hl=en&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=2810+Christianburg+Rd,+Bagdad,+Kentucky+40003&ll=38.279831,-85.075566&spn=0.001204,0.005681&z=18&panoid=DdmXqNNyve7y5P5nC-soqw) I'm really surprised that they have a streetview of our tiny little old country road. This picture's a couple years old -- they've widen our road since then.
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My beautiful building is here (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=38.607216,-90.236635&spn=0.000434,0.000589&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=38.607216,-90.236635&panoid=ZZkKMpYHw4BGCoOIm_eAMA&cbp=12,86.31,,0,4.41).
I like it a lot. So cheap, and feels safe. Even though people from Saint Louis tell me that it is really bad and scary that I live on a street named after a state.
The one time my car got broken into, they didn't even break the window. They somehow jimmied the door open.
...or else I left it unlocked.
My friends who live half a mile away have had major issues, though. Cars broken into, car-parts sawed off, house broken into multiple times, mugged, etc. Yikes. My friend got mugged by kids the age of the kids he teaches after-school art, and then would see the kids who mugged him hanging out outside the school.
Goddamn I love Saint Louis architecture. The brick buildings absolutely slay me.
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Naburbia (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=4306+SE+Washington+st+97215&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.215051,56.074219&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=4306+SE+Washington+St,+Portland,+Multnomah,+Oregon+97215&ll=45.518572,-122.617786&spn=0.010269,0.01369&z=16&layer=c&cbll=45.518593,-122.617633&panoid=or5qONk236DgDqTnUT_rPw&cbp=12,181.32,,0,23.36). The hedges are gone - they smelled like pee. The larger tree in the park strip is gone as well. It blew over in a windstorm one weekend. Fortunately the guys from here (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=4306+SE+Washington+st+97215&aq=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.215051,56.074219&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=4306+SE+Washington+St,+Portland,+Multnomah,+Oregon+97215&ll=45.518572,-122.617786&spn=0.010269,0.01369&z=16&layer=c&cbll=45.51876,-122.617792&panoid=oK0CdHrU9hoEdimLrHDLNw&cbp=12,297.56,,0,-5.28) weren't having a meeting or I would have had to buy one of them a new car.
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One side of that street could totally be in my neighborhood. The other side, the houses are shapes I've never seen here.
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The house across the street with the white picket fence was built in the 1860s. Apparently part of John Brown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist))'s family lived there at one point after his death.
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My beautiful building is here (http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=38.607216,-90.236635&spn=0.000434,0.000589&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=38.607216,-90.236635&panoid=ZZkKMpYHw4BGCoOIm_eAMA&cbp=12,86.31,,0,4.41).
Oh, that is nice. Is it nice inside?
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It is weird and foggy where you live, Paul.
Yeah, I don't know what's up with that. Maybe the fog whisked my artcar away.
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Here's home. (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2810+Christianburg+Road,+Bagdad,+KY&layer=c&sll=38.280865,-85.082430&cbp=11,341.08,,0,1.08&cbll=38.279813,-85.075568&hl=en&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=2810+Christianburg+Rd,+Bagdad,+Kentucky+40003&ll=38.279831,-85.075566&spn=0.001204,0.005681&z=18&panoid=DdmXqNNyve7y5P5nC-soqw) I'm really surprised that they have a streetview of our tiny little old country road. This picture's a couple years old -- they've widen our road since then.
The tobacco was up (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmcd9/5561682896/) when I was there.
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Oh, that is nice. Is it nice inside?
It is! I think it has been recently renovated, because they were re-painting and re-finishing the floors of the two downstairs units when I moved in.
The only problem is that the second bedroom was clearly meant for a child/a person who doesn't want a full sized bed. So my roommate lives in the living room (we installed folding doors). The dining room is now the living room, and the second bedroom has become... the weird room full of crap.
Also, our refrigerator fills up with water. Research tells me that the place the water leaks from means that our drain is clogged, but I cannot for the life of me figure out where the drain is. I think it is inside the back wall of the fridge.
Saint Louis has an incredible wealth of beautiful apartment buildings like this. You'll see them boarded up all the time if you drive around. There is one in particular that I really like that is completely abandoned, with the windows not even boarded up... it's just open to the elements. But it is near this big new "green" housing development I've been reading about, so maybe property values will go up and someone will buy it.
Apparently the big problem is that fixing these buildings up costs way more than you could get from selling/renting them. This is why the place I did the informational interview at a few weeks ago does "gap financing" where they eat the difference. (maybe that is a commonly known concept, I just hadn't heard of it.)
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The house across the street with the white picket fence was built in the 1860s. Apparently part of John Brown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist))'s family lived there at one point after his death.
dude rented a room in a house in Chambersburg,PA before he raised hell at Harpers Ferry. The house is still standing.
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Man, they should have cut the photo after the sun was up a notch (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=9782+Crestview+Circle,+Villa+Park,+CA&aq=0&sll=0,0&sspn=130.586731,302.695312&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=9782+Crestview+Cir,+Villa+Park,+Orange,+California+92861&ll=33.819981,-117.7988&spn=0.008824,0.018475&z=16&layer=c&cbll=33.819916,-117.798903&panoid=vYl_2oGt9UxuI0F6WiehqA&cbp=12,135.48,,0,2.17). That is just bad looking. Plus, the street side is boring, anyways.
Your house is about to be exploded by aliens!
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I don't want to show you where I currently live, because it looks embarrassingly like ashes, but I spent the three years before the last two months here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=975+washington+st,+denver,+co+80203&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=975+Washington+St,+Denver,+Colorado+80203&gl=us&ll=39.731927,-104.978678&spn=0.008647,0.019205&z=16&layer=c&cbll=39.731815,-104.978684&panoid=e-z3t7a4K2maHw8SgMI9iQ&cbp=12,280.31,,0,6.97
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I'm pretty sure this might be my cat. I had a nerf rifle in that window for the last year or two, so that is a pretty old picture.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=975+washington+st,+denver,+co+80203&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=975+Washington+St,+Denver,+Colorado+80203&gl=us&layer=c&cbll=39.732031,-104.978926&panoid=PrZkm2DyruWYTqNoxiB_Vw&cbp=12,173.34,,3,-2.69&ll=39.732026,-104.978807&spn=0.008647,0.019205&z=16
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This (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1411+w+13th,+99501&aq=&sll=61.209692,-149.911387&sspn=0.006655,0.01369&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1411+W+13th+Ave,+Anchorage,+Alaska+99501&ll=61.209681,-149.910121&spn=0.002987,0.01369&z=16&layer=c&cbll=61.209684,-149.910113&panoid=nYsOLM7p04Lu5xEOJSnz4w&cbp=11,340.21,,0,0.42) is the first house I remember living in. I grew up here (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1440+w+13th,+99501&aq=&sll=43.606561,-116.211963&sspn=0.010006,0.01369&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=1440+W+13th+Ave,+Anchorage,+Alaska+99501&ll=61.209692,-149.911387&spn=0.002987,0.01369&z=16&layer=c&cbll=61.209688,-149.91138&panoid=mwWkes3WbVQ1EQZiR2_7LQ&cbp=11,189.01,,0,0.99). My ex and I started college living in this (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=boise,+id&aq=&sll=39.731815,-104.978684&sspn=0.010627,0.01369&gl=us&g=975+Washington+St,+Denver,+Colorado+80203&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Boise,+Ada,+Idaho&ll=43.606561,-116.211963&spn=0.00449,0.01369&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.606568,-116.211953&panoid=nsCQzVdRmp9TOqBMO2qrVg&cbp=11,346.55,,0,-0.72) scorching hot hell-hole. One morning we woke up and our neighbors had both their cars sitting in the parking lot with every tire slashed and all the windows knocked out. We were the first people ever to live in this campus housing (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=boise,+id&aq=&sll=39.731815,-104.978684&sspn=0.010627,0.01369&gl=us&g=975+Washington+St,+Denver,+Colorado+80203&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Boise,+Ada,+Idaho&ll=43.602941,-116.211469&spn=0.004491,0.01369&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.602946,-116.211475&panoid=kCMqEHSgAoyPDp2Cd4Q2qQ&cbp=11,31.86,,0,-6.49). This (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=scotwood+drive+Wasilla+AK&aq=&sll=45.481513,-122.591329&sspn=0.009689,0.01369&gl=us&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Scotwood+Dr,+Wasilla,+Matanuska-Susitna,+Alaska+99654&ll=61.626002,-149.408698&spn=0.005894,0.02738&z=15&layer=c&cbll=61.625996,-149.408719&panoid=96pOPazkIAH2RKFYybYLsw&cbp=11,31.22,,0,7.94) is the last place I lived with my ex - on a street consisting of my (old) first and middle names, oddly. This (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=70th+avenue+portland+or&aq=&sll=61.209681,-149.910121&sspn=0.006655,0.01369&gl=us&g=1411+w+13th,+99501&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=SE+70th+Ave,+Portland,+Oregon&ll=45.481513,-122.591329&spn=0.004348,0.01369&z=16&layer=c&cbll=45.481518,-122.591318&panoid=ILcn6ZdfeUCa-RfdGCezcQ&cbp=11,107.62,,0,3.47) is the first place I lived in Portland.
I can't believe they have google streetview of that crappy little suburb in Wasilla.
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Update: turns out the blood stains didn't really come out. There are pale gray splotches where the blood had splattered and pooled. I'm hoping some sanding and staining in the late spring will cover it up. Even if other people don't know what they are, I do.
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There's no street view of the house I grew up in, which is surprising because I lived right on the main drag through town. Small suburb, though.
Here's the little bungalow (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=7812+belgium+dr+raleigh+nc&layer=c&sll=35.708418,-78.770476&cbp=11,4.83,,0,-2.17&cbll=35.707978,-78.770424&hl=en&gl=us&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=7812+Belgium+Dr,+Raleigh,+North+Carolina+27606&ll=35.70798,-78.770428&spn=0.001464,0.006899&t=h&z=17&panoid=RPLqBhvB3xG5y1Hess85jQ) my parents, my brother, and I built from the ground up when I was a teenager. Here's a top view (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=7812+belgium+dr+raleigh+nc&sll=35.708418,-78.770476&hl=en&gl=us&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=7812+Belgium+Dr,+Raleigh,+North+Carolina+27606&ll=35.708386,-78.770298&spn=0.000407,0.000862&t=h&z=20), which is more exciting.
We did all the work ourselves except for the brick masonry, the HVAC, and digging the pool. We had the exterior and enough of the interior (kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and 2 bedrooms) done enough to pass inspection in 1995, and when we moved in we didn't have doors on anything but the bathrooms or drywall in some of the ancillary spaces. Nothing was painted, and most of the floors were bare. The kitchen and two bathrooms were complete, though. We finished it one room at a time over the next five years or so, and when the main house was done, we divided the 8-car garage and finished the front half as a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a small kitchenette and living area. I lived there through college and after, until I got engaged and Pedro and I bought our first house.