Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Wednesday 1st Read: Shy bladders, store bans drunks trying to buy puppies, and a janitor/hero who won a lottery but still works

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Pull up a chair, or a stool, and have a cup of coffee or tea with me. This morning already shows the promise of another beautiful day. Let’s get started shall we?

Too shy to go? Bathroom stage fright a real condition

Given the choice, you probably prefer your home porcelain throne to using a public toilet. But for more than 20 million people in North America, peeing in a public restroom is no simple matter.

People with a "shy bladder," a real condition also known as paruresis, are fearful of urinating when other people are nearby.

"What people worry about is being in a bathroom near other people and not being able to urinate, and that others will notice and form judgments about them -- that they're weird, defective, inferior, or for men, not masculine," says Carl Robbins, director of training for the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland in Baltimore, who has worked with paruresis patients for more than 20 years.

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Store bans drunken customers from buying puppies

A New York City pet store that's surrounded by bars has banned drunken puppy-buying.

Workers at Le Petite Puppy in Greenwich Village say customers tend to stumble in after happy hour and purchase a dog without thinking.

Drunken customers now are forbidden to even hold the puppies, because they can drop them.

Store owner Dana Rich tells WINS-AM that she instructs people who have clearly been drinking to come back the next day.

Employees say they stress how much work it is to own a dog. They say they would rather lose a sale than send a puppy into an unsafe home.

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He won $3.4 million — then went back to work as janitor

Someone has to turn on the lights in life. Someone has to do the jobs we take for granted. But you’d think Tyrone Curry would kiss his trash sack goodbye.

Five years ago, the Evergreen High School custodian won the Washington State Lottery’s Quinto game. “I was dumping garbage,” he says. “Just like today. This is where I was when I found out I won the jackpot and took off running."

You see, Tyrone isn’t just the Evergreen High School custodian; he also coaches the track team. And that’s where he decided to splurge with his lottery winnings.

“I’m getting excited!” he says, watching runners circling toward him on the school’s old cinder track. This summer he’s building them a new one. State-of-the-art. Cost him 40,000 bucks. 

His track team captain, DeVante Botello, is having a tough time. The 18-year-old's mother died of a heart attack, just before his graduation.

“We were really close," DeVante says. “Her death left a void at home. I slept in the living room after her heart attack and woke up waiting to go help her.”

But she was gone. “My family is in shambles. I’m kind of floundering. I don’t know what to do.”

‘A real hero’
The honor student was just dragging his pen across paper, until his track coach showed him how to play the game of life. “He taught me perseverance,” DeVante says. “How to hold on and deal with the cards you're dealt. ‘Power through,’ ” Coach said. “ ‘Life is hard.’ ”

DeVante's eyes glisten. “Coach has this soft chuckle and then a nod. That power nod gets me every time. He just wanted to let me know that he was there for me.”  He swallows hard. “Coach said I didn't have to feel alone.”

When life throws curves, people often dwell on the terrible things that happen. They isolate themselves in grief. Tyrone asked DeVante to notice those who were willing to put their hands on his shoulders and help him get through the ordeal. The boy’s father was not around. Tyrone offered to pay for college.

“When I was coming up, I just had my mom,” Tyrone says with a shrug. “So I'm here for him.”

“Coach is probably the most amazing man I'm ever gonna meet,” DeVante says. “He's my hero — a real hero.” One who hasn't gone to the moon or scored a touchdown, doesn't have a reality show, hasn't written a book. “Why do you need to write a book when you just live the way he does and reaches out and affects so many lives?” DeVante asks.

DeVante's plans now include college. “Whatever I do with my life is gonna be in honor of Tyrone. He is always gonna live on through my actions. I wish I was as good as him. I work for it. I work for it every day. Tyrone Curry, track coach, janitor. I’m never going to forget him.” The millionaire who cares more for other people's dreams than he does his own — the luckiest man alive.

Time for me to head on down the road…

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