A Plethora

Plethora \ˈple-thə-rə\ An excess or superfluity. A profusion or abundance.

Today we had a plethora of CO's. Started out with just Sausage and I. Then Lichen came out and said he was on the yard, too. That made three. When Grasshopper got done with the mail run we got him as well. Four. Finally Troll finished up education and they sent him to us as well. Five. Well, six if you counted Sgt Uncle T.

Six of us on the freaking yard? And nothing to count? Hokey smokes!

And with nothing really going on. Well, we had one code 16 on 9 yard. Seizures. The guy was sitting on a bench and sudden;y pitched forward onto the concrete and banged himself up pretty good. He came out of it long enough to get loaded on the medical cart and I had to ride up with him in cased he seized again. And he was still pretty wasted when we got there. I don't think he had a clue where he was. I had to hold him upright in the seat all the way to medical.

They locked up two or three out of 6 house but they did their own escorts.

In short, we spent alot of time wandering around and trying not to cross paths with each other too much. It got to be kind of a game to see who could go where and not be too close to somebody else and still cover as much of the yard as you could.

At one point Sgt Uncle T and I took a ride on the cart and looked at the brickwork in some of the older buildings. The oldest ones were built back in the late 1800's and the set after that in the 1940's. The newer buildings were put up in the 1980's, I believe. The older buildings are somewhat fascinating if you look at them closely. They exhibit alot of what is referred to as "Feature brickwork". This is a subject I know very little about, but am learning bits as I go.

Feature brickwork is extra stuff that they threw into making walls and things that are decorative but not necessary to the construction of the wall. Adding little ledges and 'ghost windows' that were never really windows to start with. Putting in designs in the brick rather than just laying them straight and flat. Things like instead of a square plain building, adding a round turret on either side or castle-like crenelations on the cap.

It seems like when they were building this place.... Well, not really this place. They were actually building a new mental hospital back then..... They put in more time and effort to make the buildings more attractive.

I don't really know much about architecture styles. But it seems to me I can see gothic and victorian styles as well as art deco.

I really wish I..... Or somebody..... Could be allowed to bring in a camera and preserve some of the really cool bits of those buildings before they all fall down. And we do have one that is preparing to fall and crush somebody fairly soon. Building 14 is, I think, the old firehouse, now a maintenance shop. The end wall is sinking and buckling. Some of the bricks are probably close to at least half an inch out of place and it looks like the whole end of the structure is fixing to fall right off.

I just hope nobody I work with is close when that happens.

Will they fix it? Probably not. I'm sure there's no money in the budget available. Will they tear it down before it falls down? I doubt that, too. Why tear down a building we are using? Will they pay out the nose when somebody gets crushed by the falling bricks? Probably.

It's sad to watch some cool history rotting away.

Tuesday is Flag Day and Pop Goes The Weasel Day. It's also Pause For The Pledge Day, Blood Donor Day and Family History Day.

Let's just hope the weasel doesn't pop before we're ready for it, eh?