That's Church

I wanted to update you on the final tally for Make Room for Kids because it gives me an excuse to tell you that I beat Chachi at Mario Kart.

[pew pew]

Do you see my face? The utter concentration? The SKILLZ I HAZ?! I even wore my glasses so if I had to go a long period of time without blinking, my contacts wouldn’t pop out of my eyeballs. THAT’S how serious I took this.

That picture was snapped during the practice run, which is why Peach is in 8th place. It was during the real run with Bowser as my homeboy that I finally got into the groove of it.

And beat Chachi.

Here’s Sally Wiggin, Mikey and Big Bob playing Madden with Chachi.

It was such a fun time, especially the pwning at Mario Kart part.

However, we’re not going to talk about Tetris.

Tetris is stupid.

Stacking stupid misshapen blocks on top of other stupid misshapen blocks. Whoever heard of anything so ridiculous?

Stupid.

Now, including the $3,000 raised by Chachi Plays for Kids, we’ve raised a total of:

$12,368

Which means the kids in the Adolescent Medicine ward are going to be very very happy come April 13 on install day when we deliver and install the 24+ XBOXs that the local Microsoft employees donated, as well as all the games, movies, laptops, iPads, handheld gaming systems and more that these funds will purchase.

It’s going to be a really good day again, and I’ll be sure to share it with all of you, because those kids are only getting those gifts BECAUSE of you.

Well done, Burghers!

And well done, Chachi. Except at Mario Kart. You should practice that more.

[wink]

Just want to post one more thing about the arbitrator’s decision to reinstate Josie  Dimon to her job …

I spent a bit of time yesterday reading the actual decision document written by the arbitrator when Dave from 2PJ emailed me the link, and I would just like to say that I stand by my “couldn’t be further from Switzerland if he or she was on Alderaan” statement about the arbitrator.

1.  In a supposedly un-biased opinion handed down by an un-biased person, we find this VERY biased language:

In the second paragraph, BAM:

Wow. They jump right into that don’t they? Sounds like he’s setting something up, because it is a well known fact that Pittsburgh didn’t expect to get hit by that much snow. The NWS was forecasting 4 to 8 inches:

The storm was initially forecast to bring the Pittsburgh area 4–8 inches of snow, but the storm moved farther north than expected leading to explosive accumulations.

I even asked the weather people on twitter:

So right there off the bat, the arbitrator is showing bias.

2.  “No causal connection between anything the Grievant did or failed to do and the tragic death has been established whatsoever.”

However, it goes on:

“The conduct of others in this ugly and lamentable storm scenario was arguably far more culpable than that of the Grievant. The media pounced on the decision of the Director of Public Safety to go partying in the mountains when a major storm was known to be approaching metropolitan Pittsburgh.”

First, it sounds to me like the arbitrator is saying that Lukey and Huss going to Seven Springs had a MORE DIRECT CULPABILITY FOR THIS DEATH than the actual paramedic that refused to offer aid?!

Second, “Partying in the mountains?”

This is legal speak? This is unbiased opinion?

Not “The public safety director departed the city proper to visit a mountain resort as the storm approached,” but “HE WENT PARTYING IN THE MOUNTAINS.”

WTF?

3. Moving on:

You know why it sounds like a lame excuse? Because she’s not on audio saying, “Well, gosh. It would be a travesty if he walked here and couldn’t find us because he went another way.” She’s on audio saying, “We ain’t waiting all day. This ain’t no fucking cab service.”

4.  Onward:

The fiasco of February 6, 2010 entailed miscommunication, but not malicious neglect of duty. The Grievant and her partner paramedic walked to patients before and after the call in question. Hazelwood is a neighborhood that these two paramedics were not familiar with and it can be scary …

So, it’s okay to not render aid if you find the neighborhood scary?!

I bet there are paramedics reading this right now thinking of all the scary places they’ve had to enter to render aid and not once did they say, “Ooooh. I can’t go there. It’s too scary!” They said, “Onward.”

Read the opinion for yourself, particularly the part where the arbitrator outlines all the ways the dying man could have walked to the ambulance, not realizing that means there were several ways the paramedics could have chosen to walk to the dying man.

Snowmageddon was a disaster in every way, from snow removal to 911 dispatching to an absent Mayor, etc. and there is a lot of blame to be passed around for Mr. Mitchell’s death. The Union and the arbitrator would do well to realize that a great deal of that blame should rest heavily on Josie Dimon’s shoulders and should remain there.

Warning: Strong language. But it’s warranted. Because I’m mad.

__________________________

I will serve unselfishly and continuously

in order to help make a better world for all mankind.

~From the EMT Oath ~

City paramedic Josie Dimon, who was fired in the wake of Snowmageddon 2010 after it was revealed she refused aid to a dying man and expected the man to walk to her to receive aid instead of her walking to him, was reinstated to her job and awarded back-pay by an “arbitrator.”

In this case “arbitrator” clearly means “batshit crazy person who is neither neutral nor sane. Couldn’t be further from Switzerland if he or she was on Alderaan.”

Seriously, let’s think about this. Really. Think about this.

A paramedic refuses aid.  Says, “He ain’t fucking comin’ down, and I ain’t waitin’ all day for him. I mean, what the fuck, this ain’t no cab service. Is he on his way? Because we are not going to wait all day for him.”

And she leaves because the sick man won’t walk to her in the snow. The man dies.

THAT person has been awarded her job back and all her money save for a three-day suspension that the “batshit crazy person who is neither neutral nor sane” has determined was “warranted.”

Excuse me while I decide whether I want to fall down laughing or sobbing.

Paramedic refuses aid. Paramedic. Refuses aid.

Ms. Dimon not only didn’t perform her job, she did the OPPOSITE of her job. She walked away from a man that needed help and she did it all eff this and eff that and this ain’t no cab service and eff you. Man dies. Three-day suspension is all she’s getting because her union has her back.

Oh, to have that kind of job security — the kind of job security that some unions have managed to create. The kind that allows a person to say to themselves, “Not only do I not have to do my job very well, but I can suck so bad at my job that a man can die and I will be handsomely rewarded with reinstatement and back-pay.”

No job outside of a union has this kind of security. If you’re an IT person and you go to accounting to fix a computer and you get there and you decide to infect it with a virus, which is the OPPOSITE of the job you’re supposed to be doing, you would be fired and there is no way on God’s blue and green earth outside of dirty pictures of your boss that you’re getting your job back.

The laws of the universe should operate thusly: If you say “fuck this” and refuse to do your job and a man dies, you shall no longer have your job. Ever.

But the laws of some unions operate thusly: You can pretty much stab your boss in the throat with scissors and as God as my witness, you will get your job back with back-pay and a public apology and city-paid therapy to deal with your anger issues.

I’m exaggerating, but a man died. DIED. And the paramedic is back on the job. And my brain is thinking about exploding.

The unions are here to protect their members, but who is going to protect us from what some of the unions have become? They’re not making themselves stronger by being the bullies they are; they are actually weakening themselves and other unions because enough of this type of behavior is what is going to make citizens and politicians become fed up enough to say, “We have had it with you.”

This type of precedent is going to create dangerous unaccountability that will make union members even more complacent that nothing they do short of murdering their boss in cold blood will ever warrant the PERMANENT loss of a job. Every threat of “You’ll be fired,” will be met with “LOL. I’d like to see you try, asswipe.” They might get to take a year off, but no worries, they’ll be reinstated and swimming in back-pay before you can say, “This ain’t no fucking cab service.”

Kablooey.

As you know, I’ve taken to calling the fire that destroyed Las Velas, the Jerkface.

The JERKFACE.

God.

I hate the Jerkface. The Jerkface is like the Barney Stinson of fires. And I would like to draw a comparison here about “getting you all hot” and then something something.

Ah. It was right there, but I lost it.

But still. JERK. FACE. It’s all jerky up in the face.

Since the Jerkface came into our lives, it has been a new reality for us. On the surface, we are floating by effortlessly, smiles everywhere, la-la-la-la. Underneath the surface, we are kicking like mad, paddling constantly, doing what we need to to stay afloat.

Not complaining or whining; just telling you how it is. Like I said, a new reality for us, and we’re simply operating in the new reality we’ve been given with as positive an attitude as we can.

So many of you, especially lately, have asked for an update and here two and a half months after the Jerkface first showed up, I thought it a good time to give that update.

Here’s what Las Velas looks like right now:

That you may recognize as the dining area.

This you may not recognize as the kitchen:

And what used to be the stairs from the office to the kitchen, is now, well, a three story hole:

Whew. A little hard for me to look at those pictures even though I’m the one that took them a few weeks ago.

We’re getting close to the tail end of the insurance process, and until that process is complete both on our end and the end of the owner of the building, not much can happen, and that’s why we still have our burned out box.

Everything we own was removed by the restoration company and is being cleaned or counted as a total loss. That takes time as well.

Soon, hopefully soon, we’ll be able to get to work. As it stands now, Las Velas will hopefully open some time in May. Likely late May. Hopefully.

It’s a word I’ve been saying so much lately. Hopefully.

It’s kind of my life right now. Hoping. Praying. Waiting. Hoping. Praying. Waiting. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

But, make no mistake — we are fortunate and blessed and lucky and we embrace that every single day and we don’t take any small thing for granted.

Hopefully (ding!), I’ll have an update soon and can tell you that construction has begun in earnest and give you a solid re-open date. Until that time, we’re just going to keep on paddling like mad.

And smiling.

It wasn’t too long ago, December 2 to be exact, that 30-year-old DJ Bonics of KISS 96.1 fame and Wiz Khalifa fame had a heart attack.

Which is terrifying from a social media acquaintance standpoint, so I can’t imagine the terror he, his friends, and his family felt.

30-years-old and BOOM! Heart attack.

As would be expected, that opened his eyes to a world of healthier living and he is now starting up the Bonic’s Heart Beats Foundation with 96.1′s Mikey’s wife Jamie to encourage those under 40-years-old to live with a young-at-heart attitude that results in a healthier, more active life.  As Jamie writes:

Our main goal is to bring awareness to everyone that heart failure doesn’t discriminate by age, sex or race it can in fact strike anyone. Our first order of business is to sell awesome shirts to help raise money to throw a big event in the summer.

In line with that young-at-heart theme, the foundation is selling these Kid@Heart shirts, which just went on sale today, with all proceeds going to Bonic’s Heart Beats:

Here’s Bonics sporting the shirt:

I’m told girl-fit shirts will be available soon, but in the meantime, get the regular fit while they last.

More details on the shirt design and where you can purchase them here!