Saturday, November 24, 2007

Drunkards and Communist Pigs

Rather productive night, this one.
Is it possible to freeze to death sleeping on the sidewalk in thin clothes at -5c?
If it is, then saving people is pretty liberating.
My mother picked me up and gave me a ride to Trosa, so I wouldn't have to pay for any kind of public transportation, although I probably would have if she had told me how late she was going to be.
Anyway, pretty soon after we got here, she went to bed, and the German girl living here was ill, so she was sleeping when we arrived. I was pretty bored and I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go for a walk somewhere around 2am, after reading the first half of Animal Farm (again). Half an hour or so later, I found a man sleeping on the sidewalk, pretty close to the church, drunk as all hell. I woke him up, and tried to get him to say something sensible, although I couldn't understand half of what he said. I asked him if he lived close by, and he mumbled something about a taxi, so I called one for him, and waited there to make sure he didn't fall asleep until it arrived. I tried talking to him to keep him awake, but the conversation was a bit one-sided, since most of the time he didn't answer, and most of the times he did, it was so slurred I couldn't understand what he said. A while later, no idea exactly how long, the taxi arrived and he managed to tell the driver where he lived (On the sixth or so attempt), and they drove off.

After that, I took a walk across the cemetery, for no particular reason, and I ended up checking the headstones for a while. The youngest person currently buried on the cemetery in Trosa was six years old and was called Tomas. (Actually, the headstone said "Little Tomas", which is a bit like Tiny Tim, only he, you know, didn't die.)

When I was finished there I was pretty cold, so I went home, read the rest of Animal Farm, and fell asleep. All in all, a bit more productive than my average night.

22 comments:

Eva said...

You are Very Wise, cute. People like you make me believe humanity isn't really that overrated that a certain Pekka-Erik thinks. You're like one of the caring stars on the ignorant sky of the crowd. Go you!

*hugs*

Nallenon said...

Hahaha, thanks love, you're awesome :D


BTW, I'm actually very proud of how I managed to use the phrase "Communist pigs" without, you know, offending anyone ;)

Yeonni said...

You're really amazing, helping mr. drunk guy like that. The world needs more mr. teddies!

I looked at gravestones here too, and I found two guys, 18 and 19, both dead 1988 and buried in the same part of the g-yard... wonder what happened to them? The 18 yo guy's headstone had space for his parents' names to be engraved once they die... *sad*

Yeonni said...

And, uhm, because I haven't been online for aaages:

If it made you laugh, it made my day. ^^

Nallenon said...

Thanks Iceye. :)

Not sure why it would make your day, but that made me smile as well :)

Nightflyer said...

Wow... I dont think I would have done that. You're a real life Barry! (expet you don't have a motorcykle nor own a record store...)

Nallenon said...

Barry?
Motorcycle?
Recordstore?
(O_o)
There is something vital here that I'm missing, and, obviously I can't be bothered to Google it.


On Topic: I'm a bit surprised over this whole "Ooh, nobody else does that"-thing. I mean, is it just me, or is it common sense not to leave people like that, if it's that easy to help them? Sure, helping the homeless in Stockholm is difficult, but it was pretty easy to tell this guy wasn't homeless, so it's not like it was a huge sacrifice to spend half an hour to make sure he got home and didn't freeze to death.
(I still need someone knowledgeable to tell me if it is possible to freeze to death in those conditions, because if it wasn't, then it's not all that much of a big deal really. "Oh, wow, you saved me from.. Getting a cold?"
Rik know about these things?)

Nightflyer said...

It's not that it's hard to help. You just have to want to help. I don't for reasons that are really stupid but still in the way. Drunk people are disgusting, and can be violent. They put them self in the mess too.

If I were bigger or new martial arts then the fear wouldn't stop me at least. It doesn't matter how out of it they might be, to me they still are a threat.

Nightflyer said...

Oh and Barry is a character in Dance on my grave. ^^

Nallenon said...

Ah, I see your point.
Although you can usually tell, someone as knocked out as this guy isn't likely to be violent, and if he would have been, taking a step or two away would have made it impossible for him to do anything, he couldn't unassisted.
But yes, I see your point.

Sara said...

Well he might not have frozen to death perhaps, but he might have caught a severe cold that could have killed him. High fever is not to be taken lightly. Way to go, big guy! You would make a great christian :P

Nallenon said...

Right.

I'm pretty sure I can keep on being an all around good guy without needing an afterlife and eternal divine favor to motivate me ;)

Yeonni said...

Good answer, man. That's what a truly good guy would say: I don't need a god to tell me to do good things. ^^

Madde! You can't compare real-life people with Aidan Chambers-people! And especially not from Dance on my Grave! That's almost as big a sin as comparing real-life people with Cloud! Jeez! *blinks* What?

Nightflyer said...

Dajjen??? Hahaha... Don't freak out on me. T_T

Don't you want them to be real?

Nallenon said...

But, Iceye, wasn't that exactly what The Chinese One did over at your place? With the Richard-guy?

Yeonni said...

Come on, guys!

Want them to be real? No. Maybe I'd want that there are people like them, yes. But wanting them to be real is like wanting Justin Timberlake to be real: real people are real people, while book characters and celebrities only are real inside your mind so you can mold them the way you want them, the way you think they are. Okay, maybe I slightly overreacted, but Dance on my Grave was so horribly intense and important to me, sorry.

And what the Chinese One did was present a picture of someone who in appearance reassembled Cloud, which is miles and miles away from comparing him to Cloud-the-person.

Nallenon said...

Right, good point.
I suppose I'm more like me, then, only without a motorcycle and a record store.

Yeonni said...

Haha, yeah, nice save. *retracts claws* You're a great guy anyway, mr. teddy, I think this whole passage ends up in that conclusion despite a few sidetracks. ^^

Nallenon said...

Haha, thanks, you're sweet :)

Not that I mind sidetracks all that much, one can have very interesting conversations in sidetracks ;)

Kristin said...

People die from hypothermia wich can be developet at as high temperatures as 15 degrees, if you are wet. Third degree hypothermia occurs when body-temperature drops below 32 degrees. If you are drunk your blood-circulation is lower than normally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothermia

Rik said...

This is everyday heroics - it might not be a Great And Epic Deed, but it's certainly heroic nonetheless.

Nightflyer said...

Fine, Anton you are LIKE Barry in 'Dance on my grave'.

Any other furure comparisons from me will just have to be ignored by you Da-Ryun. It's kind of your business if you don't want them to be real. I do.

'Dance on my grave' was and is speciall for me too, maybe not in the same way though.

Well, Anton it was a good deed nontheless.