One year ago today...

I was freezing. I had a wool overcoat and pair of thin, inadequate leather gloves. A medivac helicopter carried a South Carolina state trooper into the gray sky. He wasn't breathing then and would never start again. Somebody shot him. His name was Eric. He bounced around so much--vibrant and loving his job--people called him Tigger.

I spent hours there that day, cold, having to pee, trying to tell a story that made no sense at all.

It still doesn't make sense today. I talked to the trooper's wife a few times in the the last week. She's remarkably strong. She organized a blood drive in her husband's honor. Turns out, the last time she saw him was about an hour before he got shot. He was giving blood at a drive at her office.

Right now, I'm sitting at my desk, much warmer than I was one year ago today. The TV above me is spilling out unconfirmed reports of 35 people shot at an Indiana factory.

The last two days have been a bear for me. In fact, they've sucked. But, I think about that Trooper's wife and the families of those folks in Indiana...and I don't feel like bitching too much.

So, rather than bitch...a few odd facts to send you into your evening...courtesy of the lady of Mt. Willis:

*A pig's orgasm can last 30 minutes long.
*You can rip the head off a cockroach and it won't die until nine days later when it starves to death.
*Banging your head against the wall burns about 150 calories per hour.

I think there's something to be said here about pigs, but I can't quite come up with what it is.

Oink, oink, my readers.