Corutesy Arrest Warrant

I consider myself a "dangerous mind" because I live smack in the middle of the ghetto of my city and do things like read arrest records and search public records indexes and get the "scoop" on people. Don't worrry, I don't do it unless I am asked to investigate someone or I just do random searches of family members names to see how many identical names are in trouble with the law. Crazy hobby, I know. It passes the time. Better than porn, right?

I stumbled upon a new data base this morning and something made me wonder. 

What in the heck is a "courtesy arrest warrant?" 

I should have looked at the charge and it would have made it all crystal clear. However, I was looking for something in particular and was not interested in the charge for a "courtesy arrest warrant" at the time. However, in a list of 7500+ records, I continued to see this over, and over again. I turned to one of my co workers and said:

WTHeck is a courtesy arrest warrant?  Hrmm....."Good morning citizen! As a one time courtesy, I am going to arrest you for your convenience, please hold."  :)  That made for a good laugh. After I said that, I noted that the charge was for larceny/failure to return books. AHHHH. It all makes sense now! LIBRARY BOOKS!!!  Still, courtesy for what? Is it a reminder? (ya, ya, I know it IS a courtesy for the Library. They want their stuff back.)  Is it something where you are "warned" but still fingerprinted, mugshotted, and let go to find and return or paid for said item? (Yes, I said mugshotted. Mugged was simply not appropriate.) 

At any rate, that made me worry and I ended up searching for MY name as I have had a book that has not been returned because I am not done with it yet. Yes, I have done all the renewals I could on it and the library has even emailed me a bill for it. It was due I think in.....March. I just put it down and forgot to finish it. Soooooo. I guess I am reading today and returning the library book before I get my "courtesy" handed to me in the form of silver bracelets. 

**shudders** Scary thought.  However, ironically, to receive shinies over an epic dragon story. Go figure. 

Only Me.

What do YOU think?

My own travels to the Dark Tower.

In the courts, it is all about who tells the best story. The juries believe the story tellers (the attorneys) who paint the most vibrant, believable tale.
I must have been about 13 or 14 when I first picked up the Gunslinger, by Stephen King. Never did I fathom that this story teller would take me on adventure that would take nearly 23 years to complete. Now that I am reading the final Dark Tower (VII) book, I have a certain melancholy feeling about me. I have come to love this story and its characters like a woman to her soap opera. Now that the tale is coming to an end, the sadness that I feel was similar to that of Roland the morning that Susannah went through the Artists door. They were so close to Roland's coveted Tower and now, just as the story begun, the Gunslinger enters the tower alone.
I was always told by literature experts that great stories go in a circle. Here is ours, sai Gunslinger. Another thing that enrages me but brings home thiat this story teller has successfully done his job is that the end leaves you begging, no PLEADING for more. While I have not yet red the part of Susannah in New York or what happens to Roland in the tower, I just KNOW I will be left wanting more. Just like a junkie wanting their next fix.
Yes, sai King, I do have The Wind Through the Keyhole, and while I have nearly all of your other tales, mere mention of Roland and his Ka-tet will not satisfy the thirst there is for the true story of the Gunslinger and his beloved Tower. His Darling.......
This is homage to you, sai storyteller. Thank you for this lovely tale. In my court, you have prevailed. I even cheer that the story is done because in an epilogue, you mentioned one sad little chained teddy bear that I know will now survive and go free, to search for his own tower. While I am considering taking the time to read the whole tale over again, I know it will not be the same as it was the first time.
Yes, I do truly understand, just as the artist Patrick Danville did as he drew and erased the Crimson King in the Dark Tower Vii......with vivid understanding as my eyes light up so approve.......

NOTE: This was a post to my Facebook blog that I posted last year. Yes, I did finish the book and yes, I was yearning for more. It was a marvellous ending!  I have also since found a map that shows the intricacies and how the world of Stephen King is just that....a world.  All of his books are tied together in some form or fashion and I absolutely revel in that fact!  Like this ending, I am still living my own journey to the Dark Tower.  What about you? Have you read these books or any of the Stephen King books?  What about your journey?

Daddy truly knew.

I just finished a book (for my own enjoyment not for an assignment) that I had started to read a very long time ago. My favortie part about reading a book is the feeling you get when you read that last sentence on that last page. It is a gratifying feeling that only readers know. This time, I had quiet to enjoy that feeling and noted it gave me chills. I love it. I love to read. It is a pleasure that causes no disease, cancer, and can take you away from any hell you are in and temporarily place you somewhere else. Further, upon returning from that else, your mind is, if only for a brief moment, clearer and refreshed.
Dad knew what that was like. In his final years, I often wondered why he would go through a stack of books in the blink of an eye. The man read so much that he was on what I called the library honor circuit. You see, there were about four libraries within driving distance of where he and my mother live. Every now and then I would ask him what he was reading and it was always something new. Just about every other time I inquired, he would inform me that he was on the honor books of the next library because the one he had been going to, had nothing more to offer for the moment. He had read every single damn honor book they had. I know for a fact that some of those honor shelves would take up more of two stacks! The closer to the end of his life story he got, the faster he went through those books. 

Now I understand why.

He could hardly breathe and the oxygen was not helping. The threat of the VA to take it away to convince him he did not need it did not help matters any. When dad came for his final visit to our new home, he predicted his own fate....almost to the day. But still he read. He read until he could not do it anymore. Chasing that feeling of accomplishment and of enlightenment only true readers know. Next to his deathbed he had a plastic grocery bag filled with his last round of honor books from the library. One of them "The Old Silent" had his mark in it and his glasses on top. I still have that bag of books. I still have the glasses, "The Old Silent," and that mark is still there.

While I find it hard to read something other than a textbook and my favorite author, Stephen King, I now intend to finish that book for him. I started it right after his passing and I find it quite interesting, but life got in the way. Now that I have finished my book, I will pick this one up. With dad reading over my shoulder.

Why do I say he will be reading over my shoulder? Stephen King calls his die hard fans "constant reader." That is my Dad. He needs to finish that book. Those glasses have since broken, however, I still have mine. It will be through my eyes that "The Old Silent" will provide that enlightenment not only for me but for Daddy who stands constant watch over me, my family, and, yes my Mother.
I love you Daddy. Even the things that come to light from your wisdom now make me proud to be the glimmer that was in your eyes for so long. Yes, he knows. I know too.