Wicked weather rampaged through much of the Midwest of the United States over the weekend.  Tornadoes and flash floods caused death, injury and wide-spread property damage.  Having spent most of my life in the Metro Detroit area, I know well the havoc weather can cause to homeowners.

My garage was chock-full of home repair and maintenance tools and supplies.  I regularly had to crank up the chainsaw and drag out one of several huge blue tarps when a tree branch crashed into the roof of my own house or someone else's house.  Trying to stand on an icy roof with a buzzing chainsaw after an ice storm or struggling with 1200 square feet of blue tarp in high winds are memories that I'm hopeful I don't have to relive anytime soon.

And now for something completely different

The blue tarp on the house pictured above isn't there because of weather.  Nope.  It's there because a mentally disturbed man, Sloan Carafello, of Schenedacty, New York decided to commit suicide by jumping out of a Cessna airplane without a parachute from 10,000 feet.

According to Scott Waldman of the Albany Times Union, Carafello told a local skydiving club that he wanted to take photos for a class project.  He attempted to hitch a ride last weekend, but arrived after the last flight had gone up.  Carafello, 29, was not likely in any school as he lived at the YMCA and worked in a fish market.

Saturday's flight had several skydivers and a videographer.  The Schenedacty Daily Gazette reports:

I have some questions

Neither newspaper labelled Carafello as being mentally disturbed, but if you read both short articles, they drop some big clues.  It's really a shame that Ronald Reagan gutted the mental healthcare system in our country.  I remember hearing about stories in Detroit as state mental healthcare facilities were de-funded and boarded up and mental ill patient residents were literally left on the sidewalk for relatives to pick up. 

Question one:

When are we going to shed the Bush World bullshit idea of compassionate conservatism where the only people who are helped are the share holders of private corporations who run jails instead of treatment facilities?

Question two:

Did Carafello's camera survive impact and who has it?  Those are some unique, one-of-a-kind photos.

Question three:

How soon before the New York state police release the videographer's footage and when can I see it on YouTube?

Question four:

When Hunter S. Thompson shot himself, he left instructions for his cremated remains to be shot out of a cannon on his Owl ranch.  Sloan Carafello should get some morbid bonus points for creativity.  Who has his spiral notebook with the constant little note-taking?

Question five:

Why does this mostly unreported story fascinate me so damn much?

I think it is because Carafello was an unknown, overlooked person even among the people whom he saw everyday. And, unlike the spree murderer, such as the recent mass stabbing incident in Tokyo, Carafello didn't kill anyone else after he decided to kill himself.

At the same time, I certainly wouldn't want to be the contractor who was tasked to clean up that upstairs bedroom or fix that roof in New York.  I wouldn't want to be that homeowner either.  Yuck.

[headphones]  
Jude's Project Playlist 

[lyric of the moment]
Is it true what they say, you can't behave? You've gambled your soul away.
– Beck, Deadweight 

   Suicide Sloan Carafello Skydiving