Jolly Rubino

5^th June 2015

Dear Cassi,

As I move through the mess that is my home I am sometimes reminded of a ship called the Jolly Rubino. It was a cargo craft hauling chemicals when it caught fire and burnt. The ship was such a disaster that salvage crews refused the normal ‘no cure no pay’ and opted for a daily compensation for doing what they could to save the environment.

The ship burnt so hot that when crew tried to rescue it their boots melted. In the end they had to drain the ship of oil, and let it burn itself out. Then they offloaded the chemicals and blew the ship to hell. This left the hulk open to the elements and the waves would eventually break it apart. Nature would take it back.

Is this the future of the rotting hulk that is my home? Will one day bulldozers need to smash it to bits and leave nothing of the old structure? I don’t know, Cassi, but what I do know is that whatever is going to happen is a long way off and hard work is between me and that moment.

I have so much to do and so little time.

Keep yourself, little sister,

Richard Leland Neal

Crazy Lady Attacked My Car

3^rd February 2015

Dear Cassi,

       

A crazy lady attacked my car. It wasn’t the only car she attacked, but the fact that it was my car puts me in a mood. This happened at work, and we have it all on tape, but it is unlikely the police will put much into searching for her because this is misdemeanor vandalism.

She came to the door just as the janitor was mopping the floor in the front there, and I leter her in thinking she was a client. She looked just like another one of our clients on the crappy video system we have. In fact, I’m not sure she wasn’t a client or a recent discharge from the shelter.  She knew the place and knew she had to be buzzed in.

 I knew there was something wrong when she grabbed the mop wringer from the janitors bucket and threw it on the floor screaming at him. I was on my feet at this moment going to help the janitor but as soon as I got through the first set of double doors she was gone.

The janitor and I looked at each other confused and then. I went back to my desk to see her on the cameras again. She was ripping the windshield wiper off my car. When she had succeeded in this she just walked off talking to herself.

Sometimes life is crazy,

Richard Leland Neal