J. Jason Lazarus Blog

The story is available through the <Newsminer’s> site for those that want to read it. Additionally, here’s the <original story> when the boy was hit over a month ago.

Fairbanks has always been a city with a drinking problem and we usually see a pretty substantial amount of pedestrians getting hit by drunk drivers through the summer months. I’ll have to admit, about mid-August I was thinking to myself, “haven’t had one at all this summer that made big news” - at this point, I wish that was still the case. A four year old boy, riding on the edge of the street on his Big Wheel, was struck over a month ago in the Island Homes subdivision by a underage drunk driver. The car, as the original story suggests, was full of four girls who had been publicly drinking in a local park who had elected the driver as the “the soberest” of the four - so she got to drive.

There’s so many things that sicken me about this story - and I think the first one is the prevalence and, almost, presumed acceptance of such behavior in this town. We blame it on the long winters, the cold winters, SADD, the local drinking culture and “culture” as a whole - but we rarely pin it on the idiots themselves and their complete lack of the ability to make a simple decision. We continue to allow adults, as well as minors, get away with slaps on the wrists, a temporary loss of license (which they typically ignore anyways) and SR-71 insurance - none of which actually tend to pack in the common sense in their brains it takes to make the right decision. I fear that the situation is only going to get worse as I see a greater prevalence of younger individuals that have this built-in inability to blame oneself for their own flaws - we’ve raised our children to believe that they have the right to break laws and hurt people if they think they have the reason to or a excuse to. Drunk Drivers should be forced into rehabilitation programs with the first ticket, taken to jail not only to sober up but to stay there for a couple weeks - and to boot, especially in Alaska, heavy fines should be imposed to the point where at least the next five years of your PFD is garnished to the state (to fund the rehabilitation and jail time). Who cares if the weeks in jail forces them to lose their jobs - life does, in fact, come with choices and responsibility to live with those choices. All of this should extend to minors consuming as well - a few weeks in Juvenile Hall, rehabilitation and garnished PFD’s shouldn’t only send a message to the kids but also to their parents which are most likely profiting off of the PFD’s. Second time around, screw the “3rd strike” idea, you never get a license again. The message should be abundantly clear - hurt someone or not, drunk driving will completely change your life and reset it.

The sad thing about this story is that after a month of recovering in a hospital, while playing with Legos and his dad, this poor boy started to go into cardiac arrest - and died. The drunk driver managed not to just run him over but fracture his head, break his neck and back in several places and damaged his heart heavily. Now that he has passed, I find it hard to care at all for what happens to the girl that hit him. I doubt that the justice system, who is thankfully now seeking new charges to add to her current ones (Assault, repeat minor consuming, Drunk Driving), will actually dole out what she deserves. I’m sure she’s already mulling out a tear-wrenching excuse for this utter lack of responsibility. I understand that all of us have those momentary lapses in the car but when you choose to completely inhibit your ability to make quick decisions and then choose to get in a car? You’ve just signed your contract to kill.

My heart goes out to the family of this boy - being a new father I have no idea what I would do if I lost Aidan. Although it’s hard to believe at these times, I hope God is looking after them.

A few weeks ago, Aidan turned six months old - I can’t believe that it’s been that long! It surely hasn’t felt like it’s been half a year since we were in the hospital giving birth to him and it’s so amazing thinking how small he used to be - and how big he is now. Here’s a few big updates that have happened in the past few weeks and some of the measurements from today’s doctor’s meeting: 27 1/4 inches long and 19 lbs even at 6 months, 10 days, both riding at 75 percentile - good, even (and average) growth for him. 18 inch circumference for his head which has jumped a bit - to 90% from 75% - maybe he’s getting his dad’s big head! Nonetheless, got his fourth big round of shots and this time he barely freaked out a bit - cried *maybe* for 5 seconds. He is almost hitting all the development goals for a 7-8 month old already. The doctor also commented on his amazing strength and ability to take pain. Aidan is now starting to shuffle-crawl - not really crawling yet, but he’s determined to drag around his body all over the floor. His new favorite toy is a empty water bottle with just enough water in it to keep it slipping around the floor whenever he catches it - keeping him moving all around the ground. Aidan has his first tooth coming in - and although it’s just his first tooth, he hasn’t been too fussy about it - a bit sleepless a few hours a few days ago but not much else - yay for Gripe Water and Homeopathic Teething Tablets! Aidan’s doing better sitting up without help, starting to babble with new, improved sounds and is still the happiest baby in the world. He now loves carrots, oatmeal and is iffy about applesauce - tolerates squash and sweet potatoes as well. Pears, Plums and Peas are on the docket!

I’ll have more pictures coming to the gallery in the next few days/weeks. Work has been very, very busy lately and when I get home at night, all I want to do is rest - that being said, the site hasn’t been updated nearly as often. Enjoy the below video taken in Delta over the weekend - my parents and all of us went to Delta for a Fall Drive and to go to IGA (for Russian Food) and Buffalo Center Diner (for the hottest chili in the world).

Update: here’s the direct link to the video - found out some people were having issues seeing it in Firefox 3.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks - all this transitioning back to a work schedule, feeling the paternal strings drawing ever tighter as I leave Aidan at day care (even though it’s friend-of-the-family based, it’s still painful), and desperately trying to make up for a summer-gone-awry by horrid weather - all of this hasn’t left me in the best disposition.

That being said, all is well in the Lazarus household. Aidan’s slowly starting to sleep through the night in a on-again-off-again fashion, he’s eating more solids (now likes Carrots, Squash and Applesauce) and is desperately trying to crawl (in his own unique faceplant-then-yank-carpet-to-pull-forward method). Still enjoying being homeowners, of coarse, but these next few weeks do put into light several responsibilities that’ll have to be met - between purchasing fuel, buying blueboard for the basement windows and other winterizing supplies, it just ends up being more work… after work. My two week sickness in early-to-mid August has just really drained me through and through… and I feel that, unfortunately, I’m still letting it effect me. Maybe I’m just bummed that I have literally not done anything this summer because of this absolutely crummy weather.

I actually got to game to the point of obsession this weekend - visited Super Mario Galaxy, which I bought for Deanna in January and I had yet played myself - about 7 hours into it, I’m almost needing a constant injection of it - I rarely can attach myself to a Mario game - to be honest, more than not, they’re pretty vacuous and repetitive - this one has got me completely hooked. Nice, clean fun that I can put down after five minutes or an hour. Going back to games that I haven’t finished or played in a while has been what I’ve been doing all summer long, it seems. Nonetheless, got me thinking, and I decided to update my console gaming list - now pretty much complete with 370+ games and 24 consoles.  I suppose that does prove it if any of you had lingering doubt - I am a geek.

I’ve also added some more stuff to the forum - just some more stuff about the Johansen Retail District - looks like not only Best Buy and Sport’s Authority is going in there, but also potentially Pet Stuff, Office Depot and Bed Bath & Beyond.  I say potentially because, of coarse, all these companies could back out of their plans, but also, there’s a latent hope that some of these businesses will wise up and move into one of the several vacant retail buildings around town.

More later.