Heya Folks,
I think one of the things that people respect about my blogs is that I try to tell you everything, even if it's something dumb I did. Well, I had the dumbest mission ever. And man, was I dumb...
I set out to obliterate some graffiti that was bugging me. There was a Gangster Disciples' star, a swastika and of course, the tagger's name. It was bordering the river in our town and painted in bright red. I can't stand to look at that stuff. It was prominent, but in a hard-to-get-to spot. Maybe not so hard-to-get-to, cause I got to it. -It was a hard-to-get-out-of spot.
It's a location that's popular with the gang taggers. I had been there before and had gotten rid of some earlier tags. But this was on the other side of the railroad trestle. Take note, when you're looking at something across a river, it's a lot different once you get on the other side.
I dropped a confidant off at the airport. She knew what I was going to do next on Sunday morning. I thought Sunday morning was an ideal time because of lack of traffic and lack of the gangs. I went home, geared-up and did a last check for supplies. I saw this cord and decided to take it along.
When I walked to the trestle, I realized that it was indeed a lot bigger than it seemed at first. So I tied a couple of pieces of the cord to the railing. I even thought to myself, "This is kind of dumb, but I'm a Superhero, dammit! It's my job to do something foolhardy."
I was also thinking that if the gang tagger had done it, I certainly could.
I should have thought again.
I lowered myself down, using the cords. That act reassured me that if I went down, than I could surely get back up. The drop was 10 or twelve feet above the surface next to the river. Friends can find a photo album of "Geist's Great Misadventure" in my photo section to illustrate it a bit. I'll try to snap a long-distance shot from the other side of the river as well.
So I'm on this little cement landing. Part of Rochester's flood control project. I sprayed over the graffiti. I had to step into the water a bit to do it. No prob. I have good waterproof boots. I got rid of the graffiti. Good work, "Hero." And then I try to climb the cords.
These aren't ropes, but something quite smaller. And I can't climb them. I mean, I got up to the point where I could put my hands on the ledge, but by then, I was shaky and my strength was all but drained. Worse, my self-confidence was highly questionable because I realized I had done something stupid.
I let myself back down the cords and rested. I paced the small platform and tried to shake it off. My doubt grew and grew. But I knew I had to give it another go.
And I did. I wrapped the cords around my hands as I climbed. The cords in my left hand unraveled and my weight (and the weight of my 50 pound coat, accessories, etc.) were put upon one hand. And I lost grip on those cords, too. Which caused them to wrap around my fingers. As I lost my footing, I came to the point where I was hanging involuntarily only by the cords wrapping themselves around the fingers of my left hand. I was lucky that it didn't pull my fingers off. I still can't entirely feel my right pinkie finger.
I managed to get the cords unstrapped from my hand and control-fell a few feet back to the platform. Yeah, I was bleeding a bit. When the work is hard, I like to say that "I'm not happy unless I'm bleeding."
So I'm back down. I manage to swing the end of one cord up, around the rail and back down to me. I won't bore you with how I did that. My concept was that I could hook my foot into it and use it to pull myself up. Wait... my first concept was that I could put the loop under my arms and hoist myself up. I started to arrange that and then realized that if the cord were to somehow slip over my arms, I would be hung.
I again tried to scale the wall, but couldn't find the height or knack to get my foot into the loop that would hoist me up. I was losing all strength and confidence. I did a controlled fall back down.
And my brain raced. What to do, what to do? I did NOT realize that I have a couple of friends who I might call. I hate to say it, but I've lost a lot of friends because of my time devoted to RLSH-ing that I overlooked at least two confidants who might have been able to help me. In my manic state of mind, I instead settled on, "I have no Friends to call". Plus, I had just dropped off my closest and most dedicated confidant at the airport...
I think you get where I'm coming from, although I admit it wasn't entirely rational thought at that point.
I was also quite convinced, and still am, that the taggers had worked as a team. I was solo.
My great solution to my embarrassing dilemma?
Call the police non-emergency number. Maybe not a stupid solution, but not incredibly noble, either. I explained to the dispatcher what i was doing, identified myself only as Geist, where I was, that I was in no danger and wasn't injured at all (a small lie). She asked what I would need to get out of my predicament and I said "one strong guy and a length of rope."
About a half hour passed and I tried scaling the wall again. No luck and even less skill. Then fire trucks appeared across the river. Fire truckS...
They brought the big ladder truck and another vehicle, too. A couple of firemen crossed the bridge via the rails and came to talk to me. I motioned with thumbs up and said, "Isn't this sorta overkill?" I apologized profusely for putting them to such efforts and went through a standard Q&A with "Fireman Mike". The whole thing... I'm not injured, why I was there, why I was wearing goofy looking clothes, what was on the wall before I painted it over.
Mike asked my name. I said that I'd gladly show him or anyone else my ID if I absolutely needed to, but I'd prefer to go by just Geist for now.
Mike told me that they didn't want to risk hoisting me up with a rope or anything and they just sent out for the fire boat to come and get (rescue) me.
Just for geographic information, the fire station with the boat is very close, but I'm thinking, "Holy crap! What a fiasco I've created."
So the boat arrives and they have me put on a life jacket before I get in. Fine. I thank them profusely and apologize for their troubles. They said that "Heck, it's good training practice for us." I sort of lost their interest when I tried to explain about RLSHs and why I was dressed the way I was. I figure that they were thinking I was a psych case at that point.
They take me to the other side of the trestle, where I could easily climb the brick-brack boulders to the area above. Mike is there and says that he's called for a PD unit to talk to me. I am VERY compliant, polite and cooperative.
The police car with a single officer arrives. I try to explain to him what I was doing there and my name, Geist. He asks me for my driver's license and I gladly give it to him. I know for a fact that the Rochester PD has known about me for about three years. In fact, I have a contact with them who I also entirely forgot about in my "emergency".
The officer, (yeah, I looked at his nameplate, but I'm sorry that I can't remember it now) asks some basic questions about who I am, what I was doing, why I'm dressed the way I am, and then asks me to stand behind his vehicle while he talks to his superior officer. Just before he gets in, I say, "There was a swastika, Man. That just isn't right." He said something about the graffiti having been previously reported and that no, it wasn't right.
And that was a long wait. And I'm trying to maintain a quiet, compliant cooperative demeanor. People like our friend Phoenix have got to realize that no, you never run from the cops. They're on our side. But frankly, I didn't know if I would get matching bracelets or not. I figured my odds were 65-35 FOR the cuffs.
The officer comes out to talk to me. He has some questions, and I'm thinking that's a GOOD sign. He wanted to know all about the RLSH thing. And he had some great questions.
"So do you ever think that by wearing the costume, that it might destroy your credibility?"
I said, maybe, but there's also a portion of the population that are optimistic. And they might look at this whole deal as something inspirational. We don't want to inspire anyone to put on a costume and run around doing good things, but we do want to draw attention to our causes and make the average person think, "Maybe I could step up and do a little extra in my own life in my own way."
We had a good chat. We really did. He said that it's possible that I could be charged with criminal trespass from the railroad because I hopped their railing. But he also said that he wasn't going to charge me with anything. He had talked with his supervisor and his supervisor agreed. I don't know, but I think I've got some unknown friends behind desks there. Not sure.
And no, I don't truly know what the officer thinks of me. Cops are cryptic even when they seem straightforward. But he did ask -ASK if he could take a photo of me. And I'm like... "Of course, but I know this is for a couple of reasons. One for jokes around the station and more importantly, so that you guys all know what I look like. And I want you guys to know what I look like and that I'm on your side."
The photos are the only mask-down photos that I know exist. He didn't ask me to remove my glasses or hat. He did kind of kid around with me and ask me to strike a Heroic pose. Believe me, I felt anything but heroic at that time.
He asked me if I had all of my equipment that I'd brought and said that if I ever wanted to do something like that again, get proper equipment (real ropes) and call the PD about it beforehand to see if it's cool. I told him that building a closer relationship with the Rochester PD was truly a goal of mine and thanked him.
I was free to go. I had another mission in mind for that morning, but decided that I had done enough damage for one day. I gladly went back home.
_______
Lessons learned:
1) Have the right equipment for the job. Nothing on the fly will do.
2) In my case, at least, give the cops a heads up when appropriate. That could work out to be a cool relationship.
___________
That, I hope, will be my most embarrassing story I will ever report to you guys. But I learned a lot of important things from it. Take from it what you will.
All My Best,
Geist
Oh yeah... In the Fire Calls report in the newspaper, it appears as "Public Assistance". That's a whole lot better than "Stranded Superhero".