Apocalypse at the CVS

I went to my pharmacy today, which is usually a nucking fightmare. Nothing’s ever ready, the computer takes forever, the insurance info is wrong, and there’s always someone screaming at the staff.

Today the computer was slow, as usual. The woman filling my script just kept typing and typing and typing, and I remarked that she seemed to be typing in the entire chemical structure of the drug. There was a guy in a tie just sort of hanging out in the background and he laughed. Then it appeared he was watching what the staff was doing, and occasionally he’d step in to show them something on the computer or to ask what the pharmacy assistants were doing.

Turns out he was the Efficiency Expert and I.T. guy. But, unlike every other one of those I’ve met, he was really good. Pleasant, observant, helpful, and very interested in making things work better. He’d already set up both the computers and the staff process so that people actually there in the store waiting were at the head of the queue, which incredibly had never been done before. He was also there to prepare the staff for the new computer system, which he said was “more drop downs, less typing, and easier.”

Then he stopped me on the way out to ask how well they’d done. The answer was perfectly: my two prescriptions were done in 10 minutes.

Now if I could only get a plan where it didn’t cost me hundreds of dollars a month to get the meds I need…

The writing on the mirror

Either the bro dudes have noticed that the housing boom and their easy money days are ending, or someone just dumped a lot of cheap cocaine on the market around here. I have seen more coked-out 25-40 year old mortgage bro guys this week than in the six months previously. I mean really fucking HIGH AS A KITE, flying, twitchy and loud, eyeballs making Ren & Stimpy noises, inappropriate affect, sweating, jaw clenching, everything.

The last one I saw tonight was standing on Newport Blvd near 17th with a couple of other guys. He had that overly-tanned and haggard skin, sunglasses pushed up on hiss spiked hair, a coating of sweat on his face, and office dress shirt and pants. As I waited at the stoplight he suddenly tugged sharply on his shirt so that he seemed to rip a couple of buttons off, exposing the top part of his chest. Then he yelled at them: “Revenue. Revenue, revenue. REVENUE!” And then the light turned green and I drove away.

Costa Mesa History X

Allan Mansoor is Costa Mesa’s David Duke, their Jorg Haider. He’s a smooth, well-groomed, and unctuously multisyllabic racist. He presents his anti-Mexican program as a combination of respect for law and preservation of the city’s prosperity.

Behind every smiling frontman like Mansoor, though, there’s an oaf with a club. In this case it’s Martin H. Millard, a Neo-Nazi white supremacist of the familiar type: paranoid, ignorant, obsessed with racial purity, and self-published. He’s a nut, and a dangerous one.

And behind Millard is an even scarier group: violent white supremacist gangs, who mix racial violence in with their drug deals and auto theft. Guys like the one who beat up a black guy in a wheelchair outside a Circle K last month for no particular reason.

Millard and Allan are good buddies, and the same goes for Minuteman Jim Gilchrist. Mansoor turns a blind eye to Millard’s race-mix paranoia and Gilchrist’s illegal vigilantes, and they all pretend to be law-abiding citizens and deplore street crime, which is of course an “immigrant” problem.

Costa Mesans, do not be fooled. Mansoor’s buddies aren’t just making you cringe with their crackpot racist screeds. They’re also hotwiring your car, selling speed to your kid, and doing drive-by shootings. Costa Mesa is a practical capitalist town for small businessmen. Whatever else you guys need from your city government, you need the rule of law, not a lawless ideology.

Dump your mayor. He’s no friend to anyone but pathetic Nazi losers and their thug crew.

Area Newspaper’s Police Blotter Weird This Week

Newport Beach:

Island, 300 block: suspicious circumstances, July 7. A resident found that an envelope had been placed in her mailbox with her name printed on it. The envelope contained a vibrator, a battery and a note.

Costa Mesa:

Location undisclosed: arrest, July 11. James Norwood Branch, 45, of Newport Beach, was arrested on suspicion of rape of a drugged victim and lewd and lascivious acts.

Police are investigating the cause of a loud explosion and several broken windows at a Costa Mesa apartment building late Monday. Police responded to the 2100 block of Elden Avenue at 9:30 p.m. to reports of a loud explosion, but did not see any evidence that an explosion had occurred. Tuesday morning, one resident found a piece of metal on the front porch and two other residents said their windows were broken, Costa Mesa police said. Arson investigators and the Orange County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad Tuesday morning found evidence that a destructive device was exploded outside the apartment building.

The Prescription

This is the story about how refilling one generic prescription that I have been on for more than a year has taken the whole week so far and is not done yet. I present to you the combined effects of: tightly coupled systems; similar numbers; incompetent yet confident clerks; persistent computer errors that are not corrected; supply chain mishaps; and poorly handled mergers. Ladies and gentlemen, come with me on a fantastic voyage to: THE PHARMACY!

cut for length, this was so crazy

HUrrrrrrRRrrr dUhhhhh

Man arrested for allegedly pointing laser at police helicopter

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The former head of a condominium association was arrested for allegedly pointing a laser into the cockpit of a police helicopter, temporarily blinding the pilot, authorities said.

Peter Kontos, 33, of Newport Beach, was arrested Thursday. He is being held on $500,000 bond. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.

it gets better

Not likely to get national coverage

I’m fascinated by this one, though: $500K Seized: Strange Situation at Nuclear Plant.

Yeah, so. Big truck full of stuff. Nuke plant. Five hundred grand in small bills. Trucker with no ID. This sounds like the beginning of a Bob Trout story. One hopes the nuke plant is a coincidence and it’s just the usual drug deal/money laundering gone wrong.

Or maybe if you mix your crack with plutonium it’s even better!

Dear LazyCrazyWeb

Does anyone know of a substance abuse treatment program affordable for someone without medical insurance or very much cash? Specifically, one for someone who needs to get off benzodiazepines (Ativan, Xanax, etc.) and needs a medically supervised program to do so. I’m pretty ignorant about the options in this case but you’re the Internet and you know more than I do.

No, this isn’t for me. And I’m not going to gossip about who it’s for, either, so shush. 🙂

Ideally the location would be Southern California but relocation within the U.S. for treatment is also a possibility.