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Nov. 16th, 2023 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrottieGah. Just got a text that one of the b**t people passed away about a week ago. I wrote about him earlier. Came in as a sneak-aboard aboard a way too small boat, a 21' power b**t with a cuddy cabin (nothing below decks but berth for two, some room to sit with your legs off of the berth, and that is absolutely it). Before he came in, he was tied up somewhere without power and had no heat through a winter, and his wife, who he was really close to, passed then. Ex-marine guy the manager hired to clean the place up worked both angles, tough enforcer and helping the local population stay below the enforcement radar. Steve was basically gifted run of an abandoned vessel, a probably 34' Carver motorboat, with incredibly ample living, bath, and captain's quarters, after being chased out numerous times and sleeping in his F150. At the same time, the place was basically cleared out of abandoned vessels, so some strings must have been pulled for that. Then later, the pump-overboard valve was left open (and you're not supposed to do that inside protected waters, but almost everyone does, which is a big part of this mess) and the Carver nearly sank, with people rallying pumps. I didn't get the full story. As often, it's best not to ask too many questions. Pertinent information is volunteered.
Steve usually had (shit) beer and was quick to share it, and hang out and talk.
Part of the arrangement that put him below the radar was that he would help out around the place, which they badly needed because they aren't willing or maybe able to pay for shit. So he was often helping push hyacinth out of slips, tie up little dams to try to keep hyacinth out of slips (this stuff vanishes entire coves from satellite imagery, making it look like the pre 1940s marsh has come back). The whole time I knew him, he was complaining of lack of energy, and lack of balance. He got on to some California Affordable Care Act health care plan after his wife passed, and the whole time all of us knew him, he was fighting with that. He'd go in complaining of pain, nausea, lack of balance, lack of energy, and they'd send him back with some bullshit prescription that did nothing.
When I left, after years of back and forth, they had finally done an MRI and found likely tumors, and were trying to get around to doing a biopsy, drawn out over months. We dropped him off and picked him up repeatedly while they scheduled appointments for a biopsy then figured out oops nope we don't have any in-network doctors to do that after all, try again next month.
Just now, I got a text that after I took off, they found stage 4 pancreatic cancer, then a week ago, died. Great fucking work, US healthcare system /s. Great fucking job shoving your head up your ass an incredibly long period of time and doing nothing and managing to wait until it's all too late then just failing. Nice fucking work making all of us run around non-stop trying to fix this thing while you didn't. I drove out to this fucking corporate hospital repeatedly as part of this bullshit while they slowly figured out that they couldn't do anything.
I'll always remember Steve on the phone bitching at these fuckers and I think that that's what he would have wanted. He also grew up often taking trips aboard a small wooden motorboat with his father from a young age. Pics I was shown were classic 50's; skipper-father had his pants tied over his waste and stood looking tall and proud. He often talked about how tiny the boat was but he remembered her being much larger. And all of the places around that crazy fucking river delta they went. He wanted to sell his old, green Ford F150 that only had 160,000 miles on it and buy something even larger (can't relate there) and a giant travel trailer and cruise around again and see the country, again, after only less than a year ago inheriting money from his family and not being old with no retirement. Mostly he worked doing construction. He had one story of traveling out to Florida I think it was for a job to build a deck with stairs leading down to a beach for some rich ppeople, then after he got there and started, only a neighbor walked over and told him and his crew of two that, well, you know, protected tortoise nesting season starts in three days, and then it's illegal to disturb them, so they cut every corner and worked around the clock even as water infilled their post holes in beach sand, but got it done. I only heard one side of this story, but as far as I'm concerned, this fucker deserved to fucking retire and not have to clean bathrooms and push invasive weeds out of slips. Oh, and he was a drummer in a metal band. And had stories of fighting rednecks in bars, where they tried to gang up on bandmates when they didn't stick closely enough together, and wouldn't even let them leave without a fight.
So fucking hell. There's my memorial to Steve.
Steve usually had (shit) beer and was quick to share it, and hang out and talk.
Part of the arrangement that put him below the radar was that he would help out around the place, which they badly needed because they aren't willing or maybe able to pay for shit. So he was often helping push hyacinth out of slips, tie up little dams to try to keep hyacinth out of slips (this stuff vanishes entire coves from satellite imagery, making it look like the pre 1940s marsh has come back). The whole time I knew him, he was complaining of lack of energy, and lack of balance. He got on to some California Affordable Care Act health care plan after his wife passed, and the whole time all of us knew him, he was fighting with that. He'd go in complaining of pain, nausea, lack of balance, lack of energy, and they'd send him back with some bullshit prescription that did nothing.
When I left, after years of back and forth, they had finally done an MRI and found likely tumors, and were trying to get around to doing a biopsy, drawn out over months. We dropped him off and picked him up repeatedly while they scheduled appointments for a biopsy then figured out oops nope we don't have any in-network doctors to do that after all, try again next month.
Just now, I got a text that after I took off, they found stage 4 pancreatic cancer, then a week ago, died. Great fucking work, US healthcare system /s. Great fucking job shoving your head up your ass an incredibly long period of time and doing nothing and managing to wait until it's all too late then just failing. Nice fucking work making all of us run around non-stop trying to fix this thing while you didn't. I drove out to this fucking corporate hospital repeatedly as part of this bullshit while they slowly figured out that they couldn't do anything.
I'll always remember Steve on the phone bitching at these fuckers and I think that that's what he would have wanted. He also grew up often taking trips aboard a small wooden motorboat with his father from a young age. Pics I was shown were classic 50's; skipper-father had his pants tied over his waste and stood looking tall and proud. He often talked about how tiny the boat was but he remembered her being much larger. And all of the places around that crazy fucking river delta they went. He wanted to sell his old, green Ford F150 that only had 160,000 miles on it and buy something even larger (can't relate there) and a giant travel trailer and cruise around again and see the country, again, after only less than a year ago inheriting money from his family and not being old with no retirement. Mostly he worked doing construction. He had one story of traveling out to Florida I think it was for a job to build a deck with stairs leading down to a beach for some rich ppeople, then after he got there and started, only a neighbor walked over and told him and his crew of two that, well, you know, protected tortoise nesting season starts in three days, and then it's illegal to disturb them, so they cut every corner and worked around the clock even as water infilled their post holes in beach sand, but got it done. I only heard one side of this story, but as far as I'm concerned, this fucker deserved to fucking retire and not have to clean bathrooms and push invasive weeds out of slips. Oh, and he was a drummer in a metal band. And had stories of fighting rednecks in bars, where they tried to gang up on bandmates when they didn't stick closely enough together, and wouldn't even let them leave without a fight.
So fucking hell. There's my memorial to Steve.
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Date: 2023-11-17 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-11-17 03:39 pm (UTC)