Wednesday, December 21, 2005
ugg. I slept good from 2:30am until 7am. I had 4.5 hrs. Then I got in after I did the usual and had some trouble sleeping so, I think I got 1.5hrs in. Then the cell phone rang off the hook and that was shortly before 10am. I had to get up to pee multiple times. I got up for good when the last cell phone (wrong number) woke me. I don't know much about cell phones but I hate the buggers. I have to agree with Holly that they are life savers. I should know because I had to use one once to save a cabbies life back in 1998.
basically, I was doing a paper route for the Edmonton Sun at the time Saturday Dec 12th 1998. I had started this paper route in October the year before and for the first year the driver dropped my papers off out at some guys house, out in the cold. I had to fight like hell to get the driver to drop a bundle of 50 papers in my apartment lobby. Finally they did this and rang to wake me up at 5:30 that Saturday morning. I lived on the main drag of 156th st at the time and my route was from 99th Ave to 95th Ave. I loaded up my papers half awake and as I set out I tried to think of the best way to work this. I walked East to 155th and then North and did the route like that, the down 154th and 153rd doing a zig-zag kind of a route. But as soon as I got to 155th I heard a lot of banging and yelling coming from one of the houses nearby. It was that ruckus that prompted me to avoid going that direction. I thought it was just a family dispute or something. So I continued to work the route and it went fine. I made a circut and I had a few papers left including my own copy and as I was coming up North on the back end of 155th and 95th heading up to 97th ave. What? The domestic dispute was still going on? I don't want no trouble. I began to had two more houses but as I got to the McDermot place the noise became louder. I saw a Yellow cab up ahead parked on the side. As I got closer, the noise was coming from the cab. More specificly from the back trunk. Some one was yelling from within the trunk? I could see Joe's truck from the Edmonton Journal several blocks from up ahead where I had been an hour before. I said hello into the trunk and a frantic voice of east Indian persuasion had pleaded with me to find his cell phone in the front seat of the cab and call 911. I did and the police asked me to oput the cell phone near the tunk as I knew nothing about trunk releases or anything like that at the time. So within minutes fire and ambulance came by and opened the cab trunk and released the driver. The guy must have been in there for some time. Well, at least an hour. But it wasn't cold out or anything like that. Even for mid December here in Edmonton. Anyway, I gave my statemnt to police and figured that was the end of that. My neigbor Bridget knocked on my door around 6pm as I was getting ready to watch the hockey game and said the Eedmonton Sun Offices and local media was searching for this so called hero that had saved this cabbie. It took them long enough to trace me but my neigbor Bridget had said the Edmonton Sun is on the phone and they want to interview me. So I talked with some guy on the phone and they sent one of their photographer over to my place and took my picture. I would be on the front cover of the next Sunday edition of the Edmonton Sun. Sure enough the following morning when I opened the bundles of papers, there was my picture on the front page. I saved more then a few copies. My experience saving lives with a cellphone.
It looks like a nice looking day out there about -4 or something. Should go up to +4 later today.
I'm not usually up at this hour, no thanks to that cell phone going off.
Oh yeah, in the article they wrote about my saving the cabby expierince, the Edmonton Sun said that they would recognize me in some way. Durring all the years that the City has had these local hero awards, not once has anyone come up to me and offred me any recognition. How's that for an "unsung hero."Hehehe. Oh incidently the cabby was robbed at gunpoint. Not even the cab company or the drive came forward. My fifteen minutes of fame ;-)
e.Jim
basically, I was doing a paper route for the Edmonton Sun at the time Saturday Dec 12th 1998. I had started this paper route in October the year before and for the first year the driver dropped my papers off out at some guys house, out in the cold. I had to fight like hell to get the driver to drop a bundle of 50 papers in my apartment lobby. Finally they did this and rang to wake me up at 5:30 that Saturday morning. I lived on the main drag of 156th st at the time and my route was from 99th Ave to 95th Ave. I loaded up my papers half awake and as I set out I tried to think of the best way to work this. I walked East to 155th and then North and did the route like that, the down 154th and 153rd doing a zig-zag kind of a route. But as soon as I got to 155th I heard a lot of banging and yelling coming from one of the houses nearby. It was that ruckus that prompted me to avoid going that direction. I thought it was just a family dispute or something. So I continued to work the route and it went fine. I made a circut and I had a few papers left including my own copy and as I was coming up North on the back end of 155th and 95th heading up to 97th ave. What? The domestic dispute was still going on? I don't want no trouble. I began to had two more houses but as I got to the McDermot place the noise became louder. I saw a Yellow cab up ahead parked on the side. As I got closer, the noise was coming from the cab. More specificly from the back trunk. Some one was yelling from within the trunk? I could see Joe's truck from the Edmonton Journal several blocks from up ahead where I had been an hour before. I said hello into the trunk and a frantic voice of east Indian persuasion had pleaded with me to find his cell phone in the front seat of the cab and call 911. I did and the police asked me to oput the cell phone near the tunk as I knew nothing about trunk releases or anything like that at the time. So within minutes fire and ambulance came by and opened the cab trunk and released the driver. The guy must have been in there for some time. Well, at least an hour. But it wasn't cold out or anything like that. Even for mid December here in Edmonton. Anyway, I gave my statemnt to police and figured that was the end of that. My neigbor Bridget knocked on my door around 6pm as I was getting ready to watch the hockey game and said the Eedmonton Sun Offices and local media was searching for this so called hero that had saved this cabbie. It took them long enough to trace me but my neigbor Bridget had said the Edmonton Sun is on the phone and they want to interview me. So I talked with some guy on the phone and they sent one of their photographer over to my place and took my picture. I would be on the front cover of the next Sunday edition of the Edmonton Sun. Sure enough the following morning when I opened the bundles of papers, there was my picture on the front page. I saved more then a few copies. My experience saving lives with a cellphone.
It looks like a nice looking day out there about -4 or something. Should go up to +4 later today.
I'm not usually up at this hour, no thanks to that cell phone going off.
Oh yeah, in the article they wrote about my saving the cabby expierince, the Edmonton Sun said that they would recognize me in some way. Durring all the years that the City has had these local hero awards, not once has anyone come up to me and offred me any recognition. How's that for an "unsung hero."Hehehe. Oh incidently the cabby was robbed at gunpoint. Not even the cab company or the drive came forward. My fifteen minutes of fame ;-)
e.Jim
// posted by E.Jim Shannon @ 11:32 AM 
