We went back down to the outer harbor to see the fireworks. We had to bike down furiously because we didn't leave until ~10PM but we made it in time.

We got so close again. The pictures don't do justice to how in your face it was.

Anyone who hated gnome 3 has not seen or tried out

It is so amazing how many plugins there are and how easy it is to install them. Not to mention that are made using the same technologies that fuel the web, meaning that ultimately they will flourish.

Everyone of my issues with gnome 3 has been solved.

So I was sitting on the porch on Friday having some dinner waiting for a friend to come into town when some dude, who looks totally distraught comes up and tells me his car broke down and needs a jump. I said, sorry I don't have a cable and he responded he has one if I can use my car to jump it.

So I agree to help, and ask which car. I pull down the driveway especting him to walk toward the car and by the time I got to the end of the driveway, he just gets in. In the back of my head I think this is a stupid idea, how the frick did you get yourself into this. Just stop now but some helpful person inside of me that I hate said I was overreacting and that someday this could be me needing help.

Then he says, "Its a couple blocks down toward Delavan." We start to head that way and he is doing the whole thanking me for being a christian brother looking out for my fellow man bullshit. Telling me how he had walked from the far east side to my house and how God had guided him there and answered his prayers. Every fucking time someone starts going in that direction the whole thing turns out to be some complicated drama. I decided he is already in the car, I will give him the benefit out the doubt. Besides, if I kick him out now, what if he gets angry... Its almost over anyways.

So we start heading toward Delewan when he says he needs to go to the gas station to get some gas for the car. Allegedly, the woman who he was living with, the one he gave all of his money to for her rent, drove his car around until it was out of gas and the battery died. Started going into the detail of the sob story. He is from Niagara Falls but moved to Buffalo and works somewhere in Lancaster, blah, blah.

So the entire time down Linwood I ask where the car is and he says oh, "its not actually on Linwood." Its a couple blocks down. We go to the gas station and he goes in. I told him I don't have a canister so he is going to need one for the gas. He goes in and comes out. He realizes he has no money, he left it in the car. I tell him, I have no money, I just left in the middle of dinner to help him jump a car, not planning to be out. He says don't worry then we don't need gas, he can get that later and he can just use whatever change I have in the car to get it. So now I am also down like $7 in change.

So he gets back in the car and we are heading toward the mystery car when he remembers that there is also a broken starter on the car starter and he needs to pick that up at another auto repair shop out near the Science Museum. He says he paid for the part before and its the girls uncle but then when we got there, the place was closed and the guy who was there told him to go to some house down the street. At this point we were way the fuck in the middle of the ghetto out down near east ferry. He runs in and tells me to lock the doors. He said its not like it was when he was a kid, "when black guys were just interested in playing ball, now they just want to kill people." I couldn't decide if he was threatening me or being nice. So I roll up the window and lock the door while he goes. At this point I am thinking... just drive off. Just fucking drive off. Then the other part of me is saying, you stuck it out this far. He might really just need this part and you will have done a good deed. He had just given me this whole speech about how his own people would never be this nice and help him but I was so genuine and nice the way I didn't just drive off at the gas station. Explaining how refreshing it is that I am a different kind of christian who truly cares about other people and helping them out. Mind you I am not a christian, so that really I have no idea what my motivation for helping was other than to think what goes around comes around.

So a bunch of people start wandering toward the car. I am waiting for him to come out and he doesn't. Before he went in, he had pointed out a totally stipped down car in the side yard of the abondoned looking house we were parked outside of. He says, that the car that the part he needs is coming from. In my head I start to think, "This is exactly what is going to happen to my car."

Five minutes go by, the people on bikes are right behind the car now and I turn the car on to take off. Two seconds later he comes out rushing and says, "lets go quick."

I ask him where the car is now and say that I am happy to be helping him out but I have to go meet a friend and I thought I was just jumping a car down the street. He says on Wyoming, its close by. I have no idea where Wyoming is and there is no way in hell I was bringing out my cell phone at that point.

It ties into the story because it is the street he said she lived on. So we head that way but before we go he says he needs to stop at one more gas station. Its right down the road to see if he can get some gas and borrow a canister from a taxi. We get there and he comes out with a jumbo orange freezy pop. Said he needed it to cool down with all of the errand running, no gas.

Now we start heading toward Wyoming. Each time I ask where it is he says we are almost there. Then we get to a thruway ramp and he asks me to get on. I start to feel like I am being car jacked but the reality of it is , he was not really threating me at all, I was just being taken advantage of friendliness. We get off at Grider rd near ECMC and I say, oh I am familiar with this area and tell him the story about my friend in the hospital to try and judge his humanity. He seemed sympathetic so at least I figured he was not a serial killer, lol.

We pull up to Wyoming and he remembers he never got the part from the last place so we have to make the final trip for the part at someone else's house. Its another one more block, one more block, blah, blah until we are out on Baily near South Campus. It is a much "nicer" section of the east side than the last two we were at but I am still the only white person and I definately stick out. There are women outside and all of these kids playing basketball in the street, etc.

So I park. Mind you I am not wearing a shirt as I was in the middle of eating dinner on the porch when the guy showed up and I thought I was just going a few blocks down to help jump a car. So I am sitting there. about 5 minutes go by and I start to hear people asking each what the shirtless white man is doing there. I am getting the distinct feeling they think I am watching the kids. By 10 minutes I was so aggravated that I decided, screw him I am taking off because I was feeling so uncomfortable just sitting there.

Part of me wishes I had followed through to see the end of the story. Another part of me cannot believe I even followed through that far.

Maybe I was totally ripped off for the change in my car and a ride. I mean whats to say he didn't just get $7 and a ride to his final destination and that he was never coming out.

Who knows...

If that person is half white, half Italian, then (e:mike) and I are 100% not white. This is why I always check "other" and fill in European American.

Somebody is rabid.