The Boy Who Ate Too Much Paracetamol

 The boy who ate too much paracetamol and other fun facilitator stories: 

“Do you have your med kit?!” Nina rushes over in exclamation. “Sure” I respond not overly alarmed as Nina has a tendency to see the worst in every situation. I pull the first aid pouch from my day bag and ask her what's going on.. She says “Some kid isn’t feeling well, and we wanted to get his temperature, in case it’s a flu or he is sick and my thermometer was out of battery, and I borrowed Jeff’s but his thermometer is low battery and so I came over here and I hope you have one that has a good battery, or a spare battery…” I hand her my 1980’s mercury-lead old school thermo in my kit as she continues “... they really should check the thermometers, or make sure to have extra batteries before we go out on program…” She pauses her monologue and looks to me for validation. 

Dengue Fever

 Dengue Fever.
A personal narrative.

Monday. Midday. I felt a little lethargic and thought nothing of it. But by late afternoon I was really putting in some effort. The monitoring and managing of our climbing students required my full concentration. With the usual ‘finish the day strong’ mentality I made it through and didn’t assign much seriousness to my increasing exhaustion, rationalizing it was just a long week of work; time being relative and all. After closing up I got on my motor-scooter and rode the short distance home. I can’t remember much of the ride. I think I remember making it home. I obviously did because my next memory is a few hours later, shivering in bed. I was wrapped in the only winter outfit I had brought with me to Thailand, and I was curled up under two bed covers. The bed cover in our house is not lightweight as Jay prefers the very cold aircon action at almost all times. It being the tropics here it wasn't an unreasonable preference. However, that night I had her turn it off and refused to turn it back on. I remember this was because the pain from the cold air touching my body was too severe. I was sweating profusely and the evaporate effect was… how to describe it accurately… extremely fucking painful. 

Summary of Incident

Outline:

November 5th 2022, Sometime before 10:00pm: I stopped my vehicle at Camping World in Anderson California for an intended nap. I had been driving from San Diego, to LA, to Big Sur, to San Fran over the last few days without incident. I was within a few hours drive to my destination in Oregon (to place sentimental items of my late father for safekeeping). I was on the phone with my wife at the time and she had shared some common sense reasoning that a short rest would be better than pushing forward to my mothers house. I had wanted to have personal affairs wrapped up before the end of the year and was slightly behind schedule, but agreed with her suggestion that I rest.

A few minutes after I had parked, while still on the phone with my wife, Officer Knight of the APD pulled up behind my vehicle with only his highbeam headlights on. He aggressively approached my vehicle without identifying himself, his department, or his intentions. I demanded to know who he was, believing he was security for the business but once I understood he was an officer of the law I requested he be respectful and asked him to identify himself properly. He again did not tell me his name or his department and continued to be aggressive toward me, telling me I was not allowed to sleep there and I was required to show him ID. I responded it was private property and I had permission. He ignored my statement and again demanded ID. I believed my ID to be in my car. When he failed to show me basic courtesy I demanded to speak to his supervisor. Knight forcefully detained me for allegedly failing to identify but I had not been provided enough time to find my ID. When he became physical with me I did not resist and I demanded he deescalate. I told him I would be on my way if he didn't want me to be there. I had just wanted to get to Oregon.

Complaint Against Anderson Police Officers

A few days after my detainment and citation by Knight the stress of the event surfaced as anger, as humiliation, as helplessness. I replayed the event, and listened to the recording again, and I became even angrier, even more humiliated, and I felt even more helpless. And yet, I am none of those things, so what I really was... I was disappointed at the officers for abusing their power. I took my agency and self-determination back; I filed an honest, official complaint against Anderson Police Officers.

"During officer interaction, Knight searched my phone. He shared the private photos and text conversation with officer Lockwood. I could see and hear the officers looking at my phone and laughing together. As the private photos and text had no relevance to the case this sharing between officers was not appropriate." 

Original Intent to Petition

I have decided not to return to my experiment with homeless protest, it didn't work out well the first time and I don't feel it is worth my pain unless it could actually make a change. I am highly doubtful this strategy, alone, could do anything. I originally sent the following letter, at the end of December 2022, to every elected official email in Shasta I could find, I heard no response. I felt very alone in this fight, and I still do, but I didn't start this fight, and it is a righteous cause, so I will keep going.

Open Letter to City of Anderson and Shasta County Community;

Return to Shasta?

November 6th 2023

It has been a year since my detainment and charges for allegedly sleeping in Anderson, California. I called the DA today, the 6th, to check if they had decided to file charges. They said, indeed they had. I now have a few choices.
1) I hire a lawyer, the lawyer represents me and most likely easily directs the courts to a not guilty decision. What a waste of money that would be.

2) I return to Shasta County just so I can plead not guilty in person and then wait (I'm quite sure I wouldn't wait quietly), but I would wait in protest for an unknown amount of time for a trial date to be set. Then I would most likely easily direct the courts to a not guilty decision. What a waste of time that would be.
Both of these choices are weak decisions without principled action. So, that leaves me with;

3) I return to Shasta County and loudly refuse to plead to such ludicrous charges. I return to my living homeless in protest plan and actively demonstrate outside the courthouse against this illegitimate law. I must be willing to go to jail. I must recognize the risk of physical harm. I am willing to do that. This was my original plan if the DA decided to press charges. I do want to actively fight this. 

4) I simply refuse to engage with the system and attempt as best I can to build awareness of the inhumanity of a law prohibiting a person from sleeping. I should remember the suffering of the homeless and know that I do not need to share their suffering in order to be compassionate and put in effort to help their situation.

Home

Friday January the 13th 4:08am

Jetlag has me awake. Insomnia & doubts. Why did I run away? I know why, but, I am ashamed... well, yeah, no, my first goal was to have a life with Jay. Or was it? Self-actualization is a tricky boulder to roll up a hill. I am not going to jeopardize what I have with Jay just for some small social justice cause. I will sacrifice but I have my limits. Doubts though. Is it really a small social justice cause? I don't think it is for the people who are treated as sub-human. Was it really just me being weak of character? Was the DA really out to get me? How strongly do I believe our government has become tyrannical, how far has it slipped into the Kafkaesque (I can't believe that doesn't try to autocorrect). Am I on trial? Will I be? Am I living an Orwellian existence? Are some of us more equal than others? Can I really do anything about it? 10am. Still no sleep. Still so many doubts and questions.

Choose Your Own Adventure.
Shasta County Edition.

Homeless

Thursday, Dec 29th 2022

I am dreading the idea of homelessness, even if it is voluntary and I could bail anytime I choose. I can't decide if I should destroy my access to funds, to all finances, or keep money readily available to fly right back to... to where? If I admit it, I will be legitimately homeless. I have money but I am not willing to spend it on expensive short term shelter just because an injustice was done to me. The Masters of the State demand I appear before them. Dramatic? Maybe I am too dramatic. They don't even tell me when I must appear. Maybe it isn't so dramatic, they fucked with my whole life just because they are trying to run some bums out of town. I shouldn't have shown any independent thought or action, no defiance even if they were in the wrong and I was in the right. Fuck them. But, I should have remembered, as Lao Tzu says, "The wise man never has a staring contest against a man with a gun". All I know is I was weak and the cop was powerful. Am I weak against The Masters of the State? Can I fight an actual law, even if it is a bullshit harmful law? I don't know. Someone should be trying to. I just realized it is Thursday night. Saturday is the 31st. I officially have no home in two days. Thailand is so tempting. Statue of limitations on a misdemeanor warrant is... fuck off, no expiration.