First of all, let me apologize for the LONG absence. Life has been quite a circus in the last few months, largely thanks to the legal disaster that has grown out of that car wreck I talked about in my earlier post. The county prosecutor finally admitted to me just today over the phone that they really couldn't care less about the damage that moron caused me; openly telling me that they have no intention of enforcing the "restitution" ordered by the Rent-A-Judge who took 13 months to make a ruling on my case against him after he rear-ended me with no car insurance. I've got stacks of medical bills from that, and I had to replace the almost-paid-for car he wrecked, leaving me stuck with a brand new car payment too.
I keep getting asked by the utterly useless prosecutor, as well as everyone else, "well did you get a civil attorney??" As if they rely on the victim to pursue civil suits when a criminal does something like this to them. Well, YES, you wretched bureaucrat, I absolutely did. However the only thing they were willing to do for me is to go after my old insurance company that I had at the time (prior to me dumping them after they DOUBLED my insurance rate, even though the accident was the other guy's fault), and that company of course have their own lawyers who have turned this into a slap-fight. They're playing this game of stalling tactics to draw it out forever. My attorney won't go after the actual perpetrator, either. So... I guess it's "[bleep] that annoying victim here; stop bothering us. We've got other criminals to coddle and care for with your tax dollars; you're wasting our time."
My take-away from this is "why the heck should *I* buy car insurance, then?" There is apparently no real crime in not having it. If I get stopped by the police and don't have proof of insurance, the worst I'll get is a traffic fine. The irony being that paying a traffic ticket is MUCH cheaper than buying car insurance, and apparently you can drag out the fine in court for at least 13 months, as I've seen. If the drug-dealing degenerates who indiscriminately cause harm and wreckage aren't going to be punished for this, why do *I* have to buy it??
Oh, yes. Did I mention that? After that utter jackass hit me, he got arrested a few weeks later for felony drug possession. He got let off for that, too!! He was given a few hours of "community service" (which usually means picking up trash along the highways for a few hours a day, but I'm guessing he'll avoid that too) and probation, and that's it. Meanwhile, I'm getting past-due notices for medical bills from the neck injury I struggle to pay because of the expensive car payment and higher insurance costs. Yay, criminals! You go, boyo!! That's the American dream! Perhaps you'll crash your car through a playground next! The parents of any injured kids will likely be forced to pay for your car repairs! Gotcha again! Fun times!
If you couldn't tell, I'm "a little bitter". The stress of this unholy outrage, this injustice, this absolute practical joke played on me by the toss-pot jackass of a county judge and the circus clowns in the prosecutor's office has stressed me out beyond my ability to cope with it, and my neck hurts all the time. I've let my blog slide in the meantime. I'm sorry about that.
Oh, look: here is a photo of the rocket scientist who rear ended me, dealt drugs, and then beat the system. What a hero! Betcha his mom is PROUD!
Also, for your consideration, our circuit court judge:
So if you'll forgive me for my understandably battered & bruised mental health , and the delay I'm blaming it for, I should talk about pens and inks. I know I already discussed this one, but this has been a favorite writer of mine lately so I want to revisit my fantastic Pilot Elabo. With your kind indulgence, have a look at it again:
This is the fanciest, nicest pen I have. 🙂 It is their metallic brown color, and it has a smoooooth Soft-Broad or <SB> nib that writes like butter. It's my first ever Pilot Falcon nib. Anyone else ever used one of these? I've actually had it for a few months, but again, I was too brain-deadened by the stress caused by the car wreck to talk about it. That's a poor excuse for the delay, because this is one heck of a pen! The nib is not a flex-writer, and is not intended to be. But it is springy and soft, and lays down a generous line of ink. Here's a close-up of it (again):
This is only the 2nd gold nib (rhodium plated, I believe) that I own, and it's a beauty. A smarter guy would have also had a side-view of the nib where you can see it's curved, beak-shaped profile, from whence I believe it gets it's "Falcon" name, as well as the feed, but I'm on way too many medications for such forward thinking. Right now, it's got Diamine Ancient Copper ink in it, but when it first arrived, I put a dazzling shade of orange in it from Sailor's "Jentle" inks. This is only the 2nd bottle of Sailor's high-end ink I've ever owned: Sailor Kin Mosukei.
This orange ink just POPS off of the page. I especially like how it looks on ivory- or cream-colored paper. (Assistant Editor Maggie has excellent handwriting for a dog.) Correct me if I'm wrong in the comments, but aren't these inks made only in small batches in each color, making them collectible and thus more valuable? Perhaps like that Sailor Apricot ink that is no longer made, but that everyone loves? Every fountain pen enthusiast should have their favorite color(s) represented by a Sailor product in their ink collection, even if it's "just that one bottle you only use now an then".
As you can see, it comes in a lovely hinged presentation box, and yes, I save all my pen boxes. I don't care how silly it is. (That's the closed top of my laptop computer it's sitting on, if you were wondering.) I swear, when you open this box and see your remarkable Pilot Elabo for the first time, butterflies and fairies come fluttering out, singing happily at you. And let me tell you about the converter it comes with!
This is the first ever plunger-style converter I've ever owned in any pen. It's not only very good at getting a full ink fill thanks to that pump-style filling, it's also EASY to use compared to a conventional twist-action converter that is difficult to operate with one hand without getting ink all over your fingers. Anyway, here's a close-up (again) of "Maggie's" writing sample I did with it. I believe this is the first thing ever written with it after I first filled it.
Needless to say I'm quite thrilled (again!) at this top-shelf writer. 🙂 I hope you won't mind the duplicate post; this is indeed the last pen I wrote about here. I've a new story to tell you in the next post about an embarrassing mistake I made with a much less fancy Pilot pen recently. You'll just have to wait for that one.
Speaking of my Assistant Editor, she's been a bit under the weather lately. After seeming to have less and less energy (using her company vacation time while I myself was busy not-blogging), and quickly & alarmingly putting on a bunch of weight out of nowhere, I took her to the vet clinic. After two days of blood tests, they found out that Maggie has canine hypothyroidism. She had to go on thyroid hormone therapy... she must now take a tiny thyroid pill every 12 hours for the rest of her days. That's on top of her other health issues. Poor girl. That's been weighing on my mind a lot lately too, I guess.
Anyway, let's end this on a cheerier, more celebratory note. Here's one last picture of our county judge, the utter rube who coddled and bottle-fed the poor little drug-dealing criminal that did a bang up job of ruining my life. I believe this photo was taken when he was personally supervising the city's Independence Day fireworks show last year. Here I believe we have Judge Jackass himself as he sets an example for his beloved clients--er, I mean, the county's current roster of criminal defendants--as he sets off what fireworks the county could still afford after paying his absurd salary:
I hope this year's July 4th town fireworks show gets rained out.
John
Wow! Nothing ever changes in this town - like ever! This is the same town where I couldn't go for a walk when I was in my teens and twenties (and once, even in my thirties) without getting stopped by cops who wanted to know what I was "up to". --just going for walk. That went on for years. Dumb hicks elected into the good ole boy system of small town politics.
*sigh.... Very nice pen! Love that copper ink too! Looks like some of the sunsets we sometimes get. Pet Maggie & Molly, and give them a treat for me.