IF YOU DOUBT THAT HUMAN TROLLS EXIST-----check out this blog from last year: http://mobilecodgers.blogspot.com/2011/02/bates-motel-human-troll.html
I find myself in the same area and would like an update. Here was a gentleman with a limited income but who wished to stay forever drunk. And so he found this free place to live so that his income of $600 a month could be devoted to his passion. Apparently a person can stay inebriated and even eat on $20 a day.
My readers may remember that I was probing about in this old abandoned Motel near the Salton Sea when I met him---bellowing out at me from one of the dark rooms. My companion managed to soothe him and a good interview followed. This day, the Motel seems unchanged--strewn with trash.
The gentleman is nowhere to be seen---but it appears he stills dens here.
Two couches have been added to the kitchen area.
And a couch graces his summer sleeping area. (It's about 118 degrees here most summer days) I have a suspicion where he may be---about a half mile away--I will go look for him.
Here is where I surmise he would hang out. Wait---is that him I see there playing cards?
Yes it is----I Meet Mark again---he doesn't remember me till I mention my lady companion--then he brightens up. What I really want to see is how staying drunk 365 days a year is affecting him.
To my amazement---he is doing fine---and as if to punctuate that conclusion, this lovely lady comes over to share the photograph. I chat awhile to detect if he is again drunk----and yes he is.
RANDY PHILOSOPHIZES: If anything, he seems more alive and alert than last year. Maybe a person can stay drunk for years---with that as the only focus of their lives. I see that he has at least 3 friends---two of them were drunk also. They invited me to join their poker game. I speculate on his likely fate----screaming into the night--with the DT's ---and no one to hear---and to be found dead in his "motel room". That is what happened to "Shorty" my childhood friend---we found him in his abandoned school bus/den in my hometown.
How sad :-(
ReplyDeleteHow is this any of your business?
ReplyDeleteeveryone must choose a path to follow that provides them with some semblance of happiness... he chose his path as well...
ReplyDeleteI don't know who "anonymous" is but I find that comment a rather stark example of how, in this society, many folks think that nothing is anyone's "business" unless you have a vested interest.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous must be a very uninvolved person.
If I were a loner with a substance problem I sure would hope that someone could,at least, try to understand who I was and that my life was valid... for me.
Acceptance of people and their way of life is not required in this world but it sure as hell makes this world a better place.
And Randy... please don't call this man a "human troll". He probably has a name. Did you ask him?
Oops! His name is Mark. I guess you asked.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies to Randy farm lady..What irked me was
ReplyDeleteHis comment ""what I really wanted to see" etc...it provoked a reaction I've had to some of his posts where Randy,seems to me to be " exhibiting" some of these people and I've wondered how they'd feel if they read or viewed Randy's perception of them...but I realize now that what Randy does and posts is none of MY business..
An odd thing is that chronic drunks actually have a longer life expectancy than teetotalers. Statistically, there is an optimum alcohol intake of 1/2 - 1 drink/day for women and 1-2 drinks/day for men. Mormons really hate that fact and deny it. (But then they believe in all sorts of things without a shred of evidence to back it up. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThis guy has found a place with shelter but he doesn't care about living in a mess. It appears he has a friend. Who are we to say he is bad or good? If he is harming no one, then leave him alone and leave the judgements. This may well be HIS ideal life - he is free after all.
I have wondered if the Troll of folklore is some sort of ancient memory handed down from the days of living with other human species like Neanderthals. But more likely, it would just be some unfortunates with deformations that triggered the tales. Any human who is outcast will grow to be suspicious of others, especially if he grows up being bullied for being different. And most creatures (human or not) prefer to have freedom to being taken care of and controlled.
The motel room reminds of the episode in Lord of the rings where Frodo and co. come across an old troll hole, very messy and described as being strewn with bones, old jars and pots.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that Mark has some friends, not just the poker buddies, but the lady too. I am assuming she works nearby or at the store?
Anon ... What Randy thinks might upset Mark or he may not even care TBH. This is Randy's story and he's telling it from his perspective. I don't see a thing wrong with that. Exhibition or not we all encounter people in our lives whom we choose to revisit or not for personal reasons. I feel like I'm stating the obvious here.
ReplyDeleteThanks all for your observations. Maybe I would be embarassed sometimes if my interviewees saw what I wrote about them. Certainly I was when this one read my opinion of him and raged at me: http://mobilecodgers.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-not-to-go-wacko.html ---and yet I said what I felt.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me to be as respectful as I can.
I wonder what story he would tell about you...
ReplyDeleteAlcoholism is a terrible addiction that destroys life...inside and out.
ReplyDeletePOMPOUS
ReplyDeleteSynonyms: assumptive, bumptious, cavalier, chesty, haughty, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-and-mighty, high-handed, high-hat, huffish, huffy, imperious, important, lofty, lordly, masterful, overweening
Antonyms: humble, lowly, modest, unarrogant, unpretentious
In the Dark Ages, alcohol was the drink de jour. You got to get through the cold days somehow. Who is the critic here?
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ReplyDeleteTESAJE: "An odd thing is that chronic drunks actually have a longer life expectancy than teetotalers. Statistically, there is an optimum alcohol intake of 1/2 - 1 drink/day for women and 1-2 drinks/day for men."
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We need to make a distinction between "chronic" drinkers and chronic "drunks." Anyone who drinks at all can affirm they will be far from ever getting "drunk" at this daily level considered "optimum". Any man who weighs 200 pounds could have two drinks and still be legal to drive in any state.
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Females have less tolerance for alcohol for at least two reasons = lower body weight AND their bodies metabolize alcohol slower. My book says that Japanese may have the lowest tolerance of all -- their bodies reacting as if on antibuse; making them violently ill if they consume too much. Thus some of them have become masters at the fine art of "maintaining the buzz" -- drinking just barely enough to feel the buzz . . . and then maintaining it with tiny sips from small cups of warm Sake.
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It's clear that sustaining a low-cost, traveling lifestyle is much easier without the purely optional expense of alcohol. We make our own homemade wine for about 50 cents a bottle . . . does anyone out there traveling make their own? With the constant jostling, I can imagine that any level of clarifying would be the biggest hurdle but that's only an aesthetic negative.
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sail4free
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I have a hard time reading your blog posts so, mostly I don't. I came back today just to see if I might have been wrong about you months ago when I'd made my assumptions about you as a person.
ReplyDeleteYou go around this world thinking you're better than everyone else. You look down your nose at everything and everyone. That is obvious by your writing.
You act as if all the world is a zoo exhibit or perhaps a freakshow at the circus. You are there to poke and prod the poor animals and freaks for your own perverse pleasure while you publically judge them and belittle them safely from afar.
I can't wait for the day that some blogger puts your life on the spot and asks his/her reads if your life running around judging people was a life worth living. I suspect most will say no. Some will say that you are living it the way you want though and that it's OK...
I can't begin to explain how your type make my skin crawl.