FFXIAH Linkshell Ni

I actually live about 4 blocks from McCormick Center now... Have you been there since they did the big ol' expansion to the place? Took them forever, as usual, to get the up and actually running... construction in Chicago man... I've come to think that they purposely take their time to not only incite rage in the common man but to somehow siphon more money out of the government, which they gladly dish out... there never seems to be enough people there... I did see some of the common man's rage for the construction worker as I was going to lunch one time... the guys are out there taking there lunch (normal as they do every day) and a guy in his car rolls down his window and just begins to rage at these guys eating their sandwiches... I kinda understood it but I mean yeah... as for the pizza... Giordano's, Lou Malnati's (ugh), Connies, Bacci's, etc...? I personally think if you ever do come out again that you should head out to the burbs to try my personal favorite Pizza Plus... Best Deep Dish around... Yeah you got the shedd, the planetarium and the natural history museum right there and the science and industry museum isn't too far away, you also have the two art museums but I'm not too big a fan lol... grant/millenium park... ahhh there really is a lot to do in the city... Michigan does need to burn...

One of the coolest side benefits of any job I have ever had.. You can go anywhere you damn well please, if you are the garbage man...
I left the chemical company after one too many horror stories from my co-workers about birth defects among employees and their wives... Fortune smiled upon me and I landed my ultimate dream job of being a garbage man. Since I was old enough to make noises I longed to ride the back of the "Woom-pa-pa" (which is what I called a garbage truck when I was but a wee lad.)

The toil of the job quickly chiseled me into a monstrous fully automated *** kicking machine. (Not surprisingly, my wife still longs for those days and laments how far I have strayed...she doesn't miss the smell though I must say...)

So even though we operated in and around the burnt out hulk that is Akron during the height of the crack epidemic, we stomped like smelly gods anywhere we pleased. Through the foulest slums and filthiest trailer parks none dared stand in our way. We drank beer at six in the morning with desperate men who would kill you for the change in your pocket.... But not us.

The garbage man fears no man or beast..wild dogs would try to drag you off the back of the truck and so we kept an arsenal of heinous weapons there. Metal shivs and hockey sticks, machetes and rusty axes, baseball bats and shovel handles...

A new guy reached his hand into a metal drum without looking in first and a huge rat pulled him down further into it, jerking his arm, using it to escape the can and then climbing over his back jumped to the ground. Then turning to attack my screaming new garbage brother. I spun wildly grabbing the first weapon my hand met... my trusty axe. Without hesitation I let out a great roar and hurled my axe with all my might at the beast. It tore through the air, all could hear it spinning end over end over end and then.... THUD! the blade buried deep into the ground missing the now fleeing beast by a hair's breath.

Young Billy was struggling to recover from the ordeal, stuttering wildly and pawing at his sleeve trying to wipe the beast's filth from his arm... I retrieved my axe, disappointed I had missed. Then I laid a calming hand on Billy's shoulder. "how..you...axe...rat...what.." then I showed him how to take the lid off the can.. NEVER reach blindly into a garbage can.

He knew that now. And I knew it wouldn't be long before the wind burned his chubby fleshy white face into the crimson leathery mask of garbage man. The work, the horror, the constant attacks by wild animals, the blood, the death they would forge him into a MAN.

To celebrate I took him to the best soul food place in town. He was nervous as we were the only two white guys in there. But I wasn't. I loved that place. They had this whole chicken that was roasted and then fried I have never had it that way since... and it is the best damn fried chicken I have ever eaten.

All poor people, white, brown, black, red or yellow LOOK at you a certain way with an almost feral glint in their eyes. They are sizing you up and you can feel it. It makes a lot of people uneasy.

Not me.

Twenty years has come and gone in the blink of an eye, sadly, I don't get to ride on the back of my beloved truck any more. A freak injury forced my retirement... but in my heart I am still a garbage man, a man for all seasons, tempered by them, somehow made stronger and worn away at the same time....