That guy I posted the article about, Michael Haynes (lives in my neighborhood and got shot trying to break up a dog fight), is out of the hospital.  We just got this letter through our neighborhood association.

 Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Most of you know about Mr. Michael Haynes, 41, a father of five who lived on Tecumseh and 12th, who was shot trying to rescue a neighbor’s dog being attacked by a pit bull.

Sky Bank has set up a fund for Michael Haynes and his family. I am inviting you to contribute. If anyone deserves community support – it’s Michael Hayes. He did a brave and selfless act, and he even managed to keep it civil.

Donations for the Haynes family are being accepted by Sky Bank, where a special account has been set up. .

Checks should be made out to Michael Haynes Jr. and sent to:

Sky Bank
3824 Madison Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46227

Here’s the background:

The neighbor’s dog ran loose a lot, and the Haynes kids were playing with him. The Hayne’s dog was inside his house.

Although Michael Haynes had a job as account manager for Rent-a-Center, he did not have health insurance. His injuries included 2 bullets lodged under his arm, and another through his lung. Hospital costs are unknown at this time, but are expected to be quite expensive. Although he is now out of the hospital, doctors don’t know how long recovery will take or whether he will gain full use of his arm. The family is moving out of their $800/month home and will be staying with in-laws until the wife, Stacy can get a job. She was a stay-at-home mom.

About the incident itself — the whole time Haynes was trying to get the neighbor’s dog away from the pit bull, he was talking to the owner - “come on man, grab your dog”, the owner kept saying “can’t”, “yes you can, just grab his collar and pull”, “can’t”. Up to that point, Haynes had neither touched nor threatened the pit bull. But after getting nowhere and fearing for the dog’s life Haynes raised the rolling pin as if to strike the pit, which is when he was shot. At that point the dog owner yanked on the pit bull and took off. The other dog survived.

The Haynes’ had one more pay check coming after the incident, and that’s all the funds they have on which to live.

I like being part of a group like this.

Just got back from the Aukerman reunion.  It was fun - I love this group of people.  It’s a strange mix of generations - the family reunion involves the four Aukerman brothers and all their various offspring, so we’re up to three generations.  The brothers interact with merciless heckling and the telling and retelling of Aukerman classic jokes (the punchline of the one of the goodies is “Leo needs a new face!”, and a relatively new one goes like this: “Hey, what was the score?” “3 to 2″ “Who was winning?” “3, by 1!”).  There’s a point at which an awful joke really does become funny - and these guys keep me laughing.

One of the funniest moments of the reunion occurred while we were waiting at the lodge for the last set of us to arrive.  The kids had just finished a day full of swimming and running around outside, so they were tired and starting to get grouchy.  One of the cousins grabbed Chutes and Ladders and all 5 itty-bitties ran over to play.  After a while, they started fighting about the rules, so a mom brought out another game hoping to split them up.  Of course, when the kids saw Candyland, they all wanted to play the new game and the other was abandoned as boring.  The exasperated mom told them that half could play each game, and then they’d switch, but the kids weren’t having it.  They all sat down and grabbed pieces.  Mom looks at the oldest 2 kids and says, “One of you is going to have to go play Chutes and Ladders.”  When neither volunteered, she gave the oldest a meaningful look - whereupon the girl gets up, stomps about 5 feet away, then turns around and seethes.  She looks at the mom and says (amid breath-catches, as if she’d been sobbing), “If this is the manner in which I’m going to be treated, I’m never going to play again!”  This kid is 7.  It was hilarious!  The mom gave in and let the girl come back - immediately, the drama queen settled down and happily resumed bossing around the other kids.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of my family (I only pulled out the camera at the very end because my sister-in-law was snapping so many pictures).