Unnecessary Police Reports and other park goings-on

I figure it’s about time that I start living up to the title of this small but scrappy little blog. I realize that before now I have given no indication of what I actually do at my “work.” That time is now. I work for Charleston County Parks, as an operations assistant. It’s a full time job, and I really do enjoy it. For the most part I sit in an office and answer the phones and handle campground reservations along with pass sales. It’s a pretty easy job. Sometimes it can get stressful, just because the phones never. stop. ringing. But even that has gotten easier for me, since it makes the day go by quickly. Every now and then, though, my otherwise simple and mundane office job affords me an opportunity to commune with those members of our fine society whom I otherwise would not meet. Before this current position I have with CCPRC (an awfully similar acronym to a certain “evil empire” from the 80’s. I of course am referring to REO Speedwagon) I worked a Charleston County waterpark. Oh, the tales I could tell. I won’t, which is a shame, since they’re all pretty good. I could, however, probably just give you some random details and you could probably piece together you’re own story that would be just as good:

- speedos

- “what do you mean YOU people!?”

- “can I bring my goat to the park?”

- hairy backed EMT guy.

- one too many screaming children

- all you can eat Indian food.

- incessant door bell ringing.

- children getting more presents at their 3rd birthday party than I have at all my collective birthdays, resulting, on my part, in a slight disillusionment regarding birthdays, the future of our society, and children.

That should all be enough, I think, for you to come up with an pretty accurate idea of work at at Waterpark – that and a large Dolphin mascot costume (was it me in that costume?… I’ll never tell). But this isn’t about my old, more exciting seasonal job, it’s about my current less exciting, better paying, full time job. Like I said before, we do have our moments at the park here’s a quick list of things you can use to formulate your own story of what it might be like to work at James Island County Park (that’s the name of the park, by the way).

- Endless mountains of paperwork…not really…but yeah, kinda.

- Homeless people in the campground.

- Canadians!

- Old people (namely people from Ohio, Minnesota, and Florida)!

- Driving the ultra pimpin’ County owned minivan.

That should be enough for now as well. I do have one specific story to tell you about today. I walk into the park, around 10:30, to see a gentleman with a boston terrier in his lap in the office. As I walk in, I find out that said terrier was attacked by a Rottweiler (no idea how to spell that…too lazy to look it up, even though I am online, and would rather just write this now too lengthy sentence explaining it.) and that the owners of the attacking dog just left after the incident. Two things are interesting about the situation: 1) the smaller dog was barely hurt. The owner made it sound like the Rottweiler had ripped his beloved pet to shreds. There was maybe a spot of blood on the dog’s underside. No visible wound could be seen. I can understand this…kind of. He loves his dog, and overreacted in his description of events. I can’t understand the second point 2) he was in the office to file an incident report…and more specifically to call the police to the park so they could file an incident report against those individuals who owned the monstrous beast that dared touch said Boston Terrier. We do deal with people who’s dogs are out of control ourselves, but what could the police possibly do to help the situation? Ultimately, they came out and begrudgingly filed a report, but it won’t matter either way. I can only imagine that this is a story they tell other cops at the end of the day, when they share they’re most ridiculous calls of the day.

Also, to divert slightly from the theme of the blog, I would like to mention that I saw Across the Universe this evening. It’s a musical using only Beatles songs. If you are a Beatles fan, you definitely should see it. I am currently listening to the White Album as a response to seeing the movie. Fantastic.

I also shaved all my facial hair. Daniel is now beardless.

~ by aeqvitas on November 5, 2007.