Doing Their Part (cups and corpse)

found this one in the letters to the editor in the SC Sentinel yesterday:

"No cups for homeless"

I have a photo that shows coffee cups in a tree by the River St. compound. A few months back when they initiated the "bring your own cup" policy at the dining hall on Coral Street, I mentioned to a staff worker that there will be times when folks forget to bring a cup or the one they carried among all their already heavy load would be lost. First I said that this will probably lead to the parks being cluttered with cups for many people will need to stash a cup, for one really does need to have some fluid to drink during a meal, otherwise one could choke on a bone or dry food.

Imagine having nothing to wash the food down with. But if one does not have a cup, oh well. They find themselves at risk of choking, for a cup is not provided with the dry meal at the Homeless Services Center.

Anyway, recently I discovered a tree that has coffee cups in it.

Steve Conover, Aptos

but before that I saw summer end like it had begun:

"Santa Cruz man drowns in San Lorenzo River"

SANTA CRUZ -- A 41-year-old Santa Cruz man drowned Saturday in the San Lorenzo River at East Cliff Drive, just north of the train trestle, according to Santa Cruz police.

Santa Cruz police and firefighters responded to a call that a man had fallen into the water and was drowning at 6:30 p.m.

Officers said witnesses onshore called in the incident. The witnesses left to get assistance but when they returned, they saw the man go under the water and not come back up, police said. The man yelled for help before disappearing under the water, police said.

Medics found the man, got him out of the river and performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The man was located within a half hour of the original call," Santa Cruz police Lt. Rick Martinez said. "He was not conscious or breathing when he was pulled out. Medics attempted to revive him at scene."

The county coroner was called by 7:10 p.m.

The Coroner's Office will not release the man's name until his family has been notified. Police did say he was a Santa Cruz resident.

Martinez said it was unclear whether the man fell into the river or was already in the water intentionally when he drowned. Police were investigating the incident late Saturday and no further information was available.

No fucking shit! Spent a six hour day at Seabright (I should be getting paid) after falling asleep in the hot sand after a tremendous (6 hour) workout that spanned 14 holes, 7 miles of biking, a boxing circuit and two cardio-classes. Finally decide to pack it up 6:15ish and I skate toward home....get to the trestle....many befuddled onlookers...look down, rescue operation in progress. Instead of lingering this time and assessing the spiritual temperature I skated on. Didn't think twice about it either.

Strange shit though. Guess I'm in someway doing my part, or maybe I'm not doing my part at all....rip floating corpse