The Police Live, No the REAL POLICE

So, get this. Last Friday night, we were hanging at the (ware)home. In case you don’t know, we live in Deep Ellum, a part of Dallas Texas. It’s part artsy, part fartsy, part ghetto, part hideout.

Let’s concentrate on the hideout part.

It’s not unusual for the cops to be around here. In fact the main police station is 3 blocks away from us. Is it safe here? I think it’s just as safe as anywhere around Dallas. Anyway, the police were outside last night around 10pm. No biggie, so I thought. They had sectioned off the whole block, as in no traffic as in I tried to go outside and the police said go back in.

We watch them from a window for a bit, but we can’t see anything. There’s police everywhere and ghetto birds in the sky. Something big is going down.

A small flashback, about 3 weeks ago I was walking Hannah Bear the fabulous hound and walked past our alley. The police were storming in to a warehouse back there. I assumed there were some shenanigans going on, but we all kind of keep to our self around here. I mean we know our neighbors but we don’t play bridge on Thursdays if you get my drift.

Back to last night. The cops are everywhere but we’re over it and Miss M. goes to bed. I’m up surfing the net and watching Lost season 2 on DVD trying to catch something I miss.

About 2 am there’s a lot of noise going on outside and suddenly someone is knocking on the door very, VERY loudly.

By the time I get up I hear someone shout: “Open the door, it’s the Police.” I go to the door and look through the peephole, I don’t see anything. The police cars are still outside so I figure it’s safe to open the door.

I swing the door open , look to the right, nothing. Look straight ahead, nothing. I then look to the left and there are 6 SWAT teams members complete with bullet proof helmets , Kevlar armor and 6 AK style machine guns pointing straight at my head!

I like to think I’m a cool cat in a sticky situation and I’ve had a gun pulled on me before (another story, another time), but I don’t mind saying having automatic weapons pointed at you is a little intimidating.

So, the main guy comes up to me and says “We need to search your place”. It wasn’t a question. I say no problem.

He asks about the layout of our place, if there’s anyone else here etc etc. I lay out the story for him, tell him where everything is and make no mistake these guys were open for business. They were in formation, covering each other as they progressed throughout the place. They kept switching between a really tall cop and a guy my size. Asking if I knew my neighbors, where they were if I had their phone number, etc.

I tell them no, because I don’t. Anyway, they want to go upstairs and ask if anyone is up there. I told them my girlfriend Lori is up there asleep. They tell me to wake her and let her know they’re coming up. I walk up and tell Lori that the police are here and by the end of the sentence the guy was already up there checking the room.

The two cops talking to me are playing good cop, bad cop. One is very nice, the other is very condesending and suspect of me. They were trying to find our neighbor in the alley who had burrowed out of his place and was supposedly in a warehouse between their place and ours. They thought he might have worked his way into our place. Although it's all brick, but you don't argue with machine guns.

The funny thing is, they never searched a few key places someone could've hid had we been harboring a fugitive, which we weren't.

Another crazy thing, I talked to the guy a few hours before the bust. Nothing big, just walking the dog in passing. He was a normal tweaker, if there is such a thing.

The SWAT guys actually used a ramming truck to bust down his door which was made of metal.

A crazy night, a bit of a crazy story.

I'm Snobby Bobby (bullet free) and now you know how I feel.

Corn man, corn

What can I say? I’ve renewed my love of corn. Now, I know what you’re thinking about the toilet paper post and let’s not go there.

Let’s focus on the glorious deliciousness that is corn on the cob. God invented one heckuva food when he put this bad boy together.

I’m not going to lie, my appreciation of corn had died off in my 20’s and early 30’s and I’ll tell you why.

Freshness baby, freshness. Or lack thereof.

The average joe such as myself is a generation of the fast food nation. It’s fast, convenienient and generally bad for you.

The occasional home cooking place or subway style places are an exception. And yes, there’s much more healthy food out there but those that know me know that underneath this urban (semi) professional, ruggedly handsome exterior is a good ole’ meat and potatoes kind of guy.

The corn you get these days have been sitting in water for hours at a time.

Let me tell you that’s sad. After you’ve had a freshly shucked ear of corn it’s hard to imagine anything better in life. It’s the perfect food and it comes naturally gift wrapped by the Big Man himself.

Cooking it? Nothing easier, boil some water, stick the corn in and in about 6-10 minutes you have a wonderful food.

I personally like cutting it off the cob. And I can understand that purists may take offense. I have no problem with that. But my grandpappy used to say “Corn on the cob or off still tastes like corn.” Amen to that.

The crunchiness and texture are something your taste buds are longing for again. You should have some corn.

I recently went to the state fair and you know food goes hand in hand there. So, I thought to myself, yes, yes I will have an ear of corn.

The thing was the biggest ear of corn I’ve seen in a long time, a long time. I carefully put a little salt and pepper on it and bit in. My mouth watering, just waiting for that first bite. I hesitated just a moment to tease myself, and...

BLEH!

It had been sitting in water for what hat to be hours. There was no taste. It was like little yellow water buckets. Sad. SO SAD.

What does all of this mean to you? Well, I’ll tell you. I’m going to save you the headache and tell you now that just about anywhere you get corn besides home will be the same. Either that, or worse, from a can.

But what do I know? I know good corn that’s what. It's in peak season right now (although it's available all year), go get an ear or 10. Minyards has them 10 for $2.00. That's insanity in itself.
.20 cents for something that's almost a meal in itself.

That's it, I'm off to boil an ear right now. Yeah, I know it's 2 a.m. So what?

Now, do yourself a flavor and go get some too. Corny? Yeah, that's the point.

I’m Snobby Bobby and now you know how I feel.