I almost killed the other night via a shotgun

[waltertore]

This guy got crazy on me because one of our dogs pissed on his lawn, as we walked around the block the other night. He then started to go towards his door, screaming obscenities at me, and saying he was getting his shotgun and kill me. He has already come after another neighbor with the gun. That was too much for me. I looked him in the eye and told him in some serious NJ Italian lingo, That I learned on the hard side of the streets, that if he moved 1 more step, he would meet his maker. Anway, it is all in the song.

shotgun running
that's my life
she cried, cried, cried
women of the night parade
I hurt the ones I love


Walter

[dougo]

Damn! Be careful out there Walter. We here on the board would not want anything to happen to you.

Take care,
dougooo

[jamoo]

whoa. o-kay. two thoughts:

your neighbor may not like dogs or may just be on a short fuse. we're in the same town, and i have to tell you, my neighbors have too many effin' loud irritating dogs that i guess they expect the non-dog people to put up with, while they put up with each other because their own dogs won't shut up.

i think normal, run-of-the-mill dogs don't belong in citys or suburbs.
they need s p a c e...

the second thought is, i don't understand the mentality of people who pull guns on people over trivial matters. if they care about themselves, they're more or less pathological. what can you do? i don't know.

i hope you like your song. i've been threatened as such, but it has never inspired me to write anything for whatever reason.

..

[waltertore]

thanks for listening, and the feedback. For the record, our 2 dogs are literally our children. They walk at perfect heel on leash, only bark when someone comes on the property, walk them for at least 1/2 day on leash, always carry bags for poop, and I run them off leash, at the santa rosa fairgrounds for 1 hour/day. They are very happy pups to say the least. Now that I am mainly a 1 man band, my wife and I, take them to all my gigs, in our motorhome/bus. We bought the motorhome, so I could take everyone with me, since hotels are often not dog friendly. I also agree, that most dogs do not receive the time they need, to be peaceful animals. Just like they say, you should have to have a license to have kids, the same goes for dogs, IMO. I do a lot of work with collie rescue, and see the results of neglect everyday.



On the shotgun incident- I have lived all over the world, and have never seen a place as uncivilized as california. People rage at people all the time, with no fear of consequence. When someone threatens my life, I take it very serious. It turns out this guy who threatened me, is a certified psycho. His daughter locked her two infants in a car this summer,in healdsburg ca, and 1 died from the heat. It made all the bay area front pages. The husband has the kid that lived, and also has a restraining order on this guy to stay away from his kid. He also has chased down another resident on our street, with his shotgun, because their 2 year old was walking on their lawn, as they walked around the block. For reasons of fear and retaliation, nobody but me, has reported him.

I was raised in a very violent scene, and it has dogged me my whole life. The song from this session, that's my life sums it all up. Have you ever seen the Soprano's? I was raised in that scene back in the newark, new jersey area. I am really working hard in therapy (30 years now!) to get away from my upbringing. The easy way out, would be to just take care of this guy, but I couldn't live with it. Instead, we are moving away, far away, to no neighbor land.

Our 1,200 sq ft home is in a freaking near ghetto, and is worth over $500k. Is that sick or what? We are moving to Granville Ohio this summer, and buying 5-12 acres of land, with a 2,500sq ft house, barns, and ponds, and will pay cash, from the profit of our home. For Judy and I, living in cramped cities all our lives, this is the land of no neighbors, and internet too. We will only be 10 miles or so from a city of 50k, and 35 miles from Columbus. To be able to open our door, and the dogs can run as far as they like, sounds like heaven. Plus, I will have an entire building for my studio. Granville is about the hippest little place in Ohio-liberal, non smoking, educated, fights growth, miles of hike/bike trails, home to dennison univ, hosts a blues festival, and has never had a murder or rape. Walter

[;ivlunsdystf]

Smart move. That sounds great, what you are planning to do in OH. Good luck.

[dougo]

Cheers to you Walter. Looking forward to hearing tales on your move back east. I know the Calif feeling you speak of. Feels like the too many rats in a cage syndrome going on. Even in beautiful San Diego, the pressure to keep up has caused otherwise normal folk to go ballistic on each other. Pathetic it is.

Keep us informed on the upcoming recordings and move. By the way, good for you doing the doggie rescue. Our fine dog Ruby was a rescue dog. She is the best in the world.

Take care,
DougO

[jamoo]

On the shotgun incident- I have lived all over the world, and have never seen a place as uncivilized as california. People rage at people all the time, with no fear of consequence.

I chose to clip this part, but that whole post was well written. Basically, I agree that CA is not civilized, and I'm not sure the extent to which it can be attributed to money competition, but I'm sure it doesn't help.

Other than car-vs-pedestrian scenarios (where I am the pedestrian), the only real hostility I've had to confront here is over women, fortunately (because there's a degree of predictability in those situations). In Portland, however, on two separate occasions I've had cops pull guns on me. That was, and still is, unconscionable.

One scenario TapeOpers would appreciate:

After work one evening, around 7, I strapped on my Strat with my Pandora in a fannypack and walked up towards Portland State (a couple blocks from where I lived). A university cop, a hyper-cock, accosted me, accusing me of looking 'suspicious' and suggesting I was breaking into cars (standing in place on the sidewalk with a Strat and headphones on, riiight...) At the time I worked as an analyst at a software company, owned a condo in the neighborhood, and lived off half my paycheck -- there would have been no point to stupid property crime. I told him as much. Why, I don't know, he didn't care and was completely irrational. Anyway, I became so afraid for my safety I was paralyzed into non-cooperation. The gun was drawn. He didn't pull the trigger. And here I am telling the story -- very outside of Portland.

I pass your neighborhood regularly on the way to SSU. Right past the 12 overpass there's a Chevron, and if you keep going there is a blue duplex perpetually for rent. This area is where I imagine you living. It ain't the best part of town, but I wouldn't call it a ghetto.

Andrew

[blixton]

As soon as I think I'm out, they pull me back in.

[blixton]

The west coast is hard to gauge for ghettos. Am I wrong? At least in the east a ghetto looks like a run down, smutty pile of shit. You can smell you are in the wrong 'hood.

[waltertore]

you nailed it Blixton. Out here in Ca, a ghetto would never pass as a ghetto, back east. They look a lot nicer here. Walter

[lharless]

if i were you, i'd go ahead and buy a sidearm. you're not safe in that neighborhod if you've had any confrontation with an unstable individual that owns a weapon, and has a history of assaulting women and children.

idealy, you'd have a sidearm AND a pistol gripped shotgun. start looking around your property for possible avenues of escape and evasion should this asshole invade your home. also, pick your alamo. make it a sturdy item or structure, something made of stone or thick steel. don't trap yourself. a tree that would take a couple people's arms to wrap around will do fine, but watch your flanks.

neither wood nor car doors will stop weapon-fired projectiles. if anything, they will create more havoc by allowing shrapnel, from the parts inside the car door to enter your body from the fragmenting of the material that get's shredded by the projectile coming through the door. if you get trapped behind a vehicle, become one with the ground, near a rim. if you can, dig a hole in the dirt and get your self as low as possible. if you hear someone running up to the car, you're going to have to stand and fire. be ready to get busy! HOOAH!

if you'd like to learn more about close quarters combat or if you feel you have a need to learn more about personal safety, inform your local police that you'd like to learn about personal safety. by all means, do NOT take the law into your own hands, and ALWAYS take a wireless comunication device with you in the event that you are attacked or are being chased by a dangerous individual.

while being chased, do not scream, unless you are trying to attract attention. it will only inform the attacker of your exact position.

pic a neighbor that you know to also have firearms. go to their house, or call them and have them converge on your position. use combined arms, if needed to take out the aggressor.

this is only the tip of the iceberg, for what you can do to ensure the safety of your neighborhood. if the cops aren't going to do anything, then it's your duty as a citizen to ensure the safety of life and property of the citizens in your immediate area. learn the laws for this, in your particular state. do not violate the law.

do not fire on another human unless you feel that your life or another person in your line of sight is in imminent danger!

but the best way to get rid of this asshole would be to get him reported enough times that they start seeing the pattern. get a group of neighbors to go in together to have him scoped by a private investigator and report your findings to the local police.

otherwise, have a nice day. life is too short to fight and bicker. i always say: "get this fight over with, so we can get on with the barbecue!".

do all of this without worrying the lady with the assorted details about what you're planning. she'll respect you more in the end. physical protection of your family and neighbors from aggressors is the duty of every man in that neighborhood. be the first on your block to stand up to the problem!

</end manifesto> haha!

lee

[;ivlunsdystf]

(Rolls Waylon Jennings' "How Much Is It Worth To Live In LA")

I know Walter's not in LA, but the song is running through my head as I read this nonetheless.

[jamoo]

Walter, thanks for the invite. Generally I'm pretty reclusive. I'll be at the Last Day Saloon on May 3rd for the NoMoreStereo show should you want to touch bases. They're good and local, if you can believe it, tho they're 'less bluesy than average' for rock-n-roll, if that's your speed; but the 'blues mood' is present.

..

[waltertore]

Walter, thanks for the invite. Generally I'm pretty reclusive. I'll be at the Last Day Saloon on May 3rd for the NoMoreStereo show should you want to touch bases. They're good and local, if you can believe it, tho they're 'less bluesy than average' for rock-n-roll, if that's your speed; but the 'blues mood' is present.

..

Thanks for the reply. I am booked on the 3rd, and like you said,I too am reclusive around the music scene. I am a no show at clubs, unless I am playing. 30+ years of doing it full time, has fried me on the bar scene. I used to play that club a long time ago, with cool papa (RIP). See you next time. Walter

I was down in hollywood in january. A french documentary was including me on the film, and I went in the studio with Patti Sterling. We parked our motorhome bus in front of a catholic church/school. My wife and dogs stayed inside. Within 15 minutes, a group of gangster hispanics, tried breaking in. The dogs went nuts, and the pump of the shotgun, sent them running. What a freaking world we have in the usa.

thanks everyone for your responses. As my martial art instructor taught me, the best defense is not be there when the trouble starts. We are meeting with a realtor next week, and vamanousing out of lovely california. It is lovely, it is the humans that have ruined it.

[jamoo]

... What a freaking world we have in the usa.

thanks everyone for your responses. As my martial art instructor taught me, the best defense is not be there when the trouble starts. We are meeting with a realtor next week, and vamanousing out of lovely california. It is lovely, it is the humans that have ruined it.

Oh heck, it's still probably one of the better places on the planet. There are just too darn many of us.

I like the advice about 'not being there when the trouble starts'. I'm really good at not being there. Gotta work on those 'trouble' instincts!