One last post for the night

This was a good opinion piece from Kelly Gunning, the director of advocacy and public policy for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in Lexington.

Banishment of mentally ill all too common: Son also given trips; Horine case violated court order

It should come as no surprise that severely mentally-ill citizens of this country have long been targeted for relocation by some dubious law-enforcement agencies. In the case of Adam Horine, a compassionate judge, Carroll District Judge Elizabeth Chandler, could sense immediately upon interacting with him that he was not a dangerous criminal but a very ill individual pleading to go to the hospital. According to the news report, Chandler ordered an immediate mental-health examination of Horine and his transport to Eastern State Hospital. It is also noted that a social worker’s preliminary evaluation confirmed the judge’s initial read. Yet these prudent and justified acts of advocacy, according to the report and accompanying video, were soon overridden by Carrollton Police Chief Michael Willhoite and Officer Ron Dickow, who put him on a bus to Florida.

Also in The Lexington Herald-Leader today of note:

A picture of the Central Library check-out desk, 1982.

And a followup on the story of the bicyclist who was killed by an allegedly drunk driver recently:

Justice system failed family of Lexington bicyclist allegedly killed by drunk driver, widow says

Just a week before his death, Mark Hinkel said if anything ever happened to him while biking, he'd be OK with it because he'd be doing what he loved.

"I don't think he dreamed anything would happen" when he said that, his widow, Mary-Lynn Hinkel, said in a recent interview.

Mark Hinkel, 57, was at mile 99 of the Horsey Hundred 102-mile Century ride on May 23 in Scott County when he was hit by an oncoming truck whose driver allegedly was drunk. Hinkel landed on the truck bed cover, and the driver went about 3 miles with Hinkel on the cover before the truck was stopped by police. Odilon Paz-Salvador, 29, has been charged with murder.

Okay, let's put aside for a moment that this driver had no driver licence and is an illegal alien who should have been deported years ago back to his homeland. Let's look at this:

Paz-Salvador told officers after his arrest that he had nine previous DUIs, most older than five years.

The fourth DUI during a five-year period is a felony in Kentucky, but after five years, a person's DUI count resets. As a result, a driver could be charged every five years, and each time it would be the driver's first offense.

Without the five-year reset, Paz-Salvador would have been in prison, and Mark Hinkel would be alive today, Bayer said.

"The laws were not in place to protect our father, or anyone's father," Lauren Lewis said. "We cannot let another family go through what we're going through right now, because it's just unimaginable."

I hope the laws regarding driving under the influence and the 5-year reset will be changed as a result of this case. My heart goes out to the family of Mark Hinkel.

And lastly, there was a horrific accident on I-75 Southbound at the Clay's Ferry bridge. A tractor trailer caught on fire and the driver, no doubt fearing for his life, jumped from the cab, taking him off of the bridge and down below, where his body was found after the semi-truck crashed into a barrier, with flames spreading behind it for several trailer lengths. Someone shot a very chilling video of the fire. No one else was apparently hurt, which is a miracle, although the interstate was shut down for some time, there was a fire where the fuel came down off the bridge, and some of the fuel may have made it into the river, according to the Herald-Leader. The driver was from Florida. I am so sorry for his family. It was a horrible choice he had to make, and there was little chance short of a miracle that he would emerge unscathed, judging by the reports.

Yay, I am home!

There were really no problems. I used Google Maps on my phone to get to my meeting this morning, and then get back on the Watterson Expressway and I-64 to get home. Once I reached Lexington, I decided to stop for dinner as a reward for doing so well, and the Google Maps application voice was increasingly insistent that I wasn't going the right way home. :) But I was much more relaxed on the trip home, even going past an accident on the on-ramp to I-64 and some major construction that had us at times at a standstill, and sometimes going maybe 20 miles an hour, tops. I even passed some on the way home, whereas last time I was really just trying to make sure no one merged into me.

The training was absolutely excellent. I am so stoked for class on Wednesday. I had a great roommate, met some really wonderful people, and received a tremendous amount of information (and my own teacher's handbook). I want to thank NAMI Kentucky for paying for my hotel for two nights plus meals (one of their people actually went and got me something yesterday for lunch since I didn't eat meat). The hotel staff were fine, the hotel was a little oddly set up (sink in the hall, bath having a toilet and bathtub/shower), but serviceable. I did very nearly leave a library book that had a white cover on the white sheet of the bed, and my shave gel and body wash were saved from the bathroom thanks to my roommates vigilance during walk-through.

So now I'm home with my suitcase, vanity case, laptop bag, CPAP bag, purse/tote bag, jug of distilled water, training manual and portfolio, cup of favours we had at our seats, and a muffin I grabbed that was left over from breakfast. It took three trips to get everything in. And while I'm not as exhausted as I thought I'd be, I am planning on getting some rest, take my contacts out, get into something comfy (I've already done the latter), and just chill. I considered going into the pool for a bit, as it's still open, but I really just want to enjoy being home and lounge around.

Overall, I did very well. The driving was a bit nerve-wracking at first, but it did get better, and actually I drove home on the interstate without my anxiety medication, because I left before I normally take it and didn't think about it at the time. I had never used the Google Maps application on my phone before for navigation, and didn't have to on Friday or Saturday, but this morning the only thing I did wrong was get off at the 15A exit rather than 15B off the Watterson onto Gardiner, but I just had to do a U-turn, which the woman in front of me did as well (she was in our group, the one who got the food for me yesterday) and we had done the same thing in my roommate's car yesterday, so I just went with the flow, and kept going, and made it with no trouble.

Okay, I have informed my friends that I am back, and I seem to be heading towards a small crash. Here's to taking my contacts out, setting up my CPAP, and crawling into bed for awhile, even though there's still plenty of sunshine left.

Home from work

I left everything on the bed, because I decided it would be really hot in the car today, and didn't want anything damaged. I'm starting to get very nervous. I've taken my afternoon medicine, which includes the BuSpar, early, since I'll be on the road when it would normally be time. I'm not in panic mode at the moment. I just feel very nervous, my stomach is bothering me, and I'm having tell myself to breathe slower. I'm going to call YKWIA before I leave. In the meantime, everything is packed and ready to go; I'm going to try to leave by 3:00 or 3:15 pm, so within half an hour. I am going to stop and check my oil and tyre pressure before I get onto the Interstate. Then it's on the road from there. Wish me luck.