A ghost in the machine

Summer 2011 It is insufferably hot indoors. It's hard to say whether we would feel better indoors or outdoors. The apartments at this program are "cooled" by evaporative cooling, and the evaporative coolers just will not do the job in this weather. There is some concern for the clients because they are on medications that can affect the body's ability to cool itself. One client has decided to sit outdoors in an effort to cool down. It is the middle of the day, in the middle of summer, and relief from the heat is a distant dream. In a sane world, this situation would not be allowed. But technically, it meets a state requirement for the apartments to have cooling in the summer. If a state inspector would come and actually check the air temperature, maybe the program would have a problem, but this is not on the minds of the staff this afternoon. The staff members, who are dripping sweat along with the clients, and drinking water, are trying to persuade some of the cl...

Flashback to 2013 Some details may be left out to avoid any breach of client confidentiality In a nod to a local policy requiring profanity to be documented by partly spelling certain words with asterisks, that's what I'll be doing here. It's time for the weekly meeting at the group home. The boys who are made to live here are elsewhere for the duration of the staff meeting. Outside, the temperature is hot, as is normal for summer. Inside, the house is dim, cool, and almost damp-feeling. Several of the staff members, and the middle manager who oversees the site, are vaping inside the house. This is probably in violation of company policy, but the middle manager (henceforth called coordinator) tends to violate company policy and sometimes several state laws. He is very overweight, which will in the future contribute to him suffering from deep vein and pulmonary thrombosis, but for now he uses his bulk and his personality to look intimidating. His vape pen is tipped with...