It Is Getting Closer To Spring...


Author Ellis Peters once said: "Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment". WIth the recent warming spell, it's little wonder that people would be out and about. After the snowfall last month, even the most die-hard afficionado of winter must have been thinking that Spring would never get here.

But anyone with a decent garden can tell you that the daffodils and hyacinths are peeking through the ground, so warmer weather is coming. And with it, all the activities that nicer seasons bring. That being said, my friendly neighborhood aboriginies have taken this spring-like portent as the "starting whistle" for THEIR particular brand of shenanigans.

Take boomcars (please). They have come out in force, feeling free to share their "special" kind of LOUD music (?) with us. During the snowstorm last month...we had about TWO all damn day thumping through here. Yesterday, it was SEVENTEEN, and these were only the one driving by the intersection, NOT the ambient thumping you can hear almost 24/7. It's like the area has it's very own frigging heartbeat! It reminds me of the Franklin Institute in Philly where they have the HUGE model of the human heart, and you can walk through it...and all you hear is that "thump-thump" beat, simulating your heart doing it's "thing".

Then we have the rush on those cheap-ass resin chairs ($2 at your local dollar store) that can barely hold all the fat-asses that don't work around here. Can't look for a JOB, but I got plenty of time to sit out front, suck down a cold one, and watch the world go by. Yeah, right.

And of course, we have those that just HAVE to have a cookout...almost EVERY damn day and night, replete with loud music, naturally. Now while I will admit the smell is really good (and I love to barbeque), the accompanying noise is NOT good. I simply cannot believe that SO many people in this city are so damned "hearing-impaired" as well as so damned unemployed (but driving brand new cars & SUVs like someone's GIVING them away).

We have (unsupervised) kids running all over the place (and not looking where they're running)...into the street, onto everyone's property with absolutely NO regard to anything or anyone. Funny, we used to call that BAD PARENTING. I wonder what the "PC" nomenclature is these days? Be a real shame if some numbnut, zooming by with his car stereo too loud (and not paying attention) were to HIT a few of these street urchins, wouldn't it? Then we'd see the obligatory (well-fed by the taxpayers) mother sobbing "ma baaabeee...ma baabeee". Well stupid, if you put down that joint and were WATCHING what the hell your kids were DOING, it might never have happened.
End of subject.

The liquor stores are doing a land office business, as we can see from the cans and bottle flung from car windows (when did the drinking while driving law go away?) all over the place, as well as from the pedestrian flotsam. A few streets over, one house had a freaking 20 pack of Bud Light empties spread all over the front lawn...talk about cleanliness, eh? Well, we already know full well about "Godliness" around here...more like God-LESS-ness.
One word does comes to mind...ANARCHY.

But it IS getting closer to Spring...
And I've been watching this tide of apathetic and abhorrent behavior rise ever closer and closer (to our block) with each year. It would seem that for every GOOD neighbor we "lose" around here, they're replaced by several BAD neighbors...not the BEST ratio in my book. Not to mention these "bad" folks have so many OTHER "bad" friends that love to constantly stop by any time of day or night (again, the lack of desire to find a job thing). One could say that the first week of any given month is about the worst, and we all know why...it's "welfare" week. It's also the time when drugs seem to come (in abundance) into our fair city, as is evidenced by a recent arrest in Canterbury Green apts. Seems a man there (with a stolen AK-47w/40 rd mag , $11K+ in "chump change", and a load of Mary Jane) was busted, and will be taken to FEDERAL court (suh-weet)! He also remarked that he "just" received his shipment, and guess what? It arrived on March 2nd. Gee, that's about the SAME time activity in certain houses around here hits it's ZENITH for the month...(Joe Musi in Vice/Narcotics...take note).

But it IS getting closer to Spring...
So...all you people that live in the NICER parts of Fort Wayne (and beyond) can see what people such as I have to deal with on a rather chronic basis. You "should" feel relieved you don't have this where YOU are. After all, YOU get to actually ENJOY the warmer weather where YOU live. In fact, you pretty much get to enjoy LIFE itself a lot more than us "grunts in the trenches" down here. Not to mention, you probably have people in your area you can hang with, rely on, and be there (for you) when you need them. Wish I could say as much these days. I do have my "fall-back" posse though...it's called ME, MYSELF, and I. THOSE guys I can rely on!

It's not a "pity party"...just some hard facts about a long-neglected part of town...a part of town where too many people just "gave up", caved in, and bugged out, when they should have stood their ground. It's a place where good people are in short supply, and bad people are in abundance; a part of the city where values mean little, and respect means even less. It's a place where crime does well, illegal drugs are easier to come by than Sudafed at Walgreens, and "poverty" is the term used to mask laziness and apathy. It's an area struggling to find itself (again), while all the time slipping further down the civil and moral ladder, rung by rung. And it spreads like the disease it is, so enjoy what you have while you can.
We used to call places like this in Philly..."The Badlands".

Then that must make me something akin to The Lone Ranger.
Oh, for a faithful Indian companion right about now, eh?

Still...it IS getting closer to Spring.