12/08/99
Mom's Corpse

I don't feel like I look good today. I'm wearing a blue sleeveless sweater, a white t-whirt and some brown corduroys. This is normally a positive self-image outfit for me, but today I feel borderline sloppy, like a chronic masturbator or something. I think my t-shirt may be too big.

I didn't shave this morning, either. Perhaps that's the reason for my slovenly feeling? I don't know.



Here's a creepy story from the Commercial Appeal today:

Alone with dead mom,
boy lived on pizza, fear

For a month 9-year-old Travis Butler had a secret.

It haunted him every time he cut his own hair, every time he got dressed and every time he went to catch the bus.

His mother was dead.

And Travis, afraid to go into foster care, told no one that her body lay on the living room floor of their East Memphis apartment.

Apparently, some friends of the family found out what was going on.

"At first he said his mother was at work and wouldn't let us inside," said Jeffries. "When we kept asking he finally just broke down and said, 'Mama can't talk anymore because she got really sick and I think she is dead.'"

Travis had covered his mother with her coat and placed sheets of notebook paper over her face, Jeffries said.

"I just don't know how that baby survived in there for a month with that smell," said Jeffries. "It was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life."

She said Travis begged them not to call police because he was afraid of being placed in a foster home.

"When the ambulance came he ran to his mother because he didn't want her to be taken. I will never forget that sight."

Jeffries said after Travis's mother was taken away, he told them that since November he has been living off frozen pizza, soup and cereal.

His mother had some money in the house and when he ran out of food he would walk to the grocery near the apartment.

"I asked him if anybody came to check on him during Thanksgiving break and he said he was OK because he had a big frozen pizza for Thanksgiving dinner," Jeffries said.

Okay, first you have to admire the kid's resourcefulness. In a bad situation he took control as best he could, trying to keep to a normal schedule and not to draw any attention. He did pretty well, too. A 9-year-old was basically on his own for a month and he did fine.

But on a completely different level: eeeeeeeewwwww! That is gonna be one fucked-up person when he grows up, if he's not fairly fucked up now. I mean, suppose you'd had to spend a month with your dead mother before you turned ten. You'd be pretty messed up, right?

Should I even mention that this kid goes to a school named South Park Elementary? Yes, I think I should.

Ah, here's the story on CNN. I don't know how long that link will work, though.



So the Wife and I were talking at lunch and we somehow got around to making our List of Five, the five people who, if you got the chance, you'd do. After you make the list you laminate it and keep it in your pocket so you can show it to the people on the list (should you ever meet them) and impress them with your dedication.

Harold's List of Five

Sonya's List of Five

You'll note Sonya likes the musicians, and the men who wear the make-up. Just an observation.



Did I mention that I finally fixed the bedroom window the other night? I did! I went to Walgreen's Monday night and, amongst other things, got some big lawn garbage bags and a roll of gray tape. I got home and made a tarp out of four of the bags, then taped them over the window, covering the entire window and the sill below it. It billowed out to frightening proportions but the tape held, keeping the cold air out of the bedroom.

"It's cool in there now," I told James earlier, "but comfy-for-sleeping cool, not see-your-breath cool."




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