WHO THE FUCK keeps a rooster in the city?!?! And WHY, of all places, does it have to be near my apartment?

Well, I don't know who keeps a rooster in the city, howling at the top of its lungs since WELL BEFORE daybreak... but if they don't put a lid on it, I'm having chicken for dinner, for fuck's sake.

So a few days ago, a really good friend checked himself into rehab... for the seventh or eighth time. The catch this time is that's it's not one of those "get clean quick" detox scams that he's done a few times, or the "ninety-day plan" that he's done a couple times, too... he's going to be away for at least eight months and probably more like at least a year... which... I dunno... He's always had a problem... it was a problem when he was 13 and it's only progressed over the years. He's 33, now, and... well, a complete wreck. I know I spoke of a "dead pool" in another post, and sadly, Jim and I have come to put him at the top of the list... and it's really quite painful. This guy... I dunno... through a really unfortunate circumstance, he had a ton of money handed to him as a small child... no trust, just a bank book full of cash... more cash than a lot of people need their whole lives. And he spent it all... on drugs. And he got more money from his family... and spent it all... on drugs. And he got money from everyone he knew... and he spent it all... on drugs. And he got even more money from his family... and he spent it all... on drugs. When he went to a more lengthy rehab a few years back, we got to talking about it and he said one of the things they made him do was sit down and figure out roughly how much money he had spent on drugs in his lifetime up to that point... and the figure he gave me about gave me a stroke. I couldn't believe my ears... and he even sat down with a piece of paper over lunch and proved it... and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was astronomical. His big problem is that he's never had to answer to anyone, basically his entire life. He just got handed a truckload of cash and turned loose. And he didn't even have to spend the money... there were plenty enough people around with enough of what he wanted to go around... and his family handed him money, constantly... when he did something good, when he did something bad... whatever... No one held him accountable... and so here he is, now, near death, broke as a joke, sold everything he's ever cherished or even owned... with nothing to show for it except the next year removed from society, trying to save his own life... well, maybe. He's never been able to take any of his attempts to get clean seriously, before... so I don't know how this is going to be any different, honestly. But his wife divorced him and took their children far away from him... his recent girlfriends used him and dumped him... his business is in ruin... his family has finally taken a small stand and cut him off (although apparently, he's not the one paying an insane amount to go to this rehab)... and he's nearly dead (I saw a picture of him taken right before Christmas and... well... wow, did he look frightening compared to the guy I've known for twenty-plus years). I don't really understand how someone with so much to do could settle for something so little... and he's just been doing nothing but chasing the dragon for years upon years, now. He's not getting anything from it, anymore. He hasn't for a long time. It's just eaten him alive and turned him into some shell of a former self, trying to justify this strange bit of "maintenance..." that's cost him everything he's ever had in his life.

I can only wish him the best of luck, now... and hope that I don't have to be another pall bearer at another funeral anytime, soon... I just really can't stand to do that, anymore.

So... I don't get to leave... yet. Frankly, I'm not surprised... I'm not surprised by much, anymore.