Monday Musings...

Fort Wayne was fortunate enough to receive some much needed RAIN this weekend, and in my neighborhood, that means some peace and quiet (for a change), as the boomcar drivers refrain from thumping when it's wet out. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the best (or worst) that life has to offer as we sallie forth into another week of tedium, banality, and angst (and those are the GOOD points...LOL)!

Food Prices On The Rise:
Nope, you NEVER heard that HERE....oh wait, you DID hear that HERE....and quite often when I spoke about ethanol and rising fuel costs over the past year. No big surprise then right? My wife even noticed that our grocery bill has risen while the amount we bring home has remained relatively static.

Four paper bags full is about $10-$15 MORE than it was in say 3-4 months ago. And we're barely out of the gate on this one. Thanks to the lack of rain hurting crops, prices for the yields FROM those crops is going up (good for farmers, bad for us). Now unless you know someone with a "Victory Garden", or have started one yourself, it's S.O.L. time for a lot of us. And we know that getting foods to market costs more, so that increase is passed along to (you guessed it)...US. Let's just hope that all the foods we're IMPORTING (the sheer quantity of which would ASTOUND you) make it through customs without a hitch, and that some country we get bananas from doesn't decide to get pissed at the USA for some dumbass reason, right?

Drugs In Fort Wayne:

You gottem my friend....with a capital *D*, and that rhymes with *P* and that stands for PUTZ (that would be the morons that distribute as well as use this crap). Sunday's paper (Metro section) had an article on more drug busts (which translates to higher drug traffic). We're actually breaking records in that regard.

How dubious a distinction for the city.

Police say the increase in busts is because there are more drugs coming into the city ('ya think?) The FWPD says there is no indication that the number of drug seizures will be declining (not when they're allowed to deal in our neighborhood at will anyway).

Sheriff Fries has the right idea as to the drug busts: "If we can attack the drug problem, we can attack other crimes". Now that's what I'm talking about...a real domino effect. Problem is...back in the 80s, turf wars were a direct result of drugs in the city, and now, there's PLENTY of "customers" to go around (I would safely wager that about 80% of those living on just MY block can be nailed for using, if not distributing...hair follicle testing, anyone?). It's not so much the drugs that the narcotics division fights against as the get-rich-quick idea. Everyone wants to be a "Scarface", and although I think Al Pacino is a damn fine actor, I MUCH more enjoyed his performance in SERPICO ("All I wanted to be was an honest cop") to Scarface ("Say hello to my little friend")! That would explain all the ghettosleds with chromalusion paint jobs and killer stereos around here...wouldn't it?

Glynn Hines (councilman-6th district) says that "We as citizens have to get involved".

Sorry Glynn, WAY ahead of you...been trying to get houses closed and perps busted for YEARS (with limited success). I would say that over the years, people HAVE become "involved", and not in the good way. I've seen increased drug USE in my area, and with the transient nature of rental property dwellers, this becomes a MAJOR issue in this campaign against drugs. Yet, it's rarely addressed to the degree that I feel it should be, otherwise I wouldn't be seeing what I have been seeing the past 4-5 years, namely more drug houses and more usage. But it's not limited to renters. We have home OWNERS that have fallen off the "wagon", and are back to smoking dope. Sadly, it takes YEARS to have these people caught, when all it would take would be some good, healthy surveillance (then the police could see what I see).

Screw Disneyworld...I'm Going To MARS...

Well, I'm not "actually" going there, but my NAME is going there. The Phoenix lander blasted off to the red planet Saturday with a disc onboard (CD/DVD...wonder if it's full or widescreen version?), carrying about 100,000 names of people from earth (sadly, that leaves a LOT of you out of the loop...it was a first-come, first served thing). And yours truly is ONE of them. So in some manner, part of me IS headed to a rendezvous with our closest planetary "neighbor" in the solar system. Must be nice this time of year...all that lack of oxygen!

((note to self...bring along some virtual long underwear))

The spacecraft will attempt to land near the polar cap to study the soil and ice for signs of organic compounds which could be indicators of conditions favorable for life, either now or once upon a time. This will be a powered landing, and not one of those multi-balloon, bouncing all over the place kind of landings.

The date for landing is 25 May, 2008, (if all goes well...a BIG *IF* that is) followed by three months of scooping samples of the soil and ice. Beats looking for clumps in the litterpan, eh? One (small) thing bothering me though (the *IF* factor)....in 15 attempts to land on Mars, only 5 have been successful. Be a shame to have to "cut my vacation" short...don'cha think? Still, in some distant part of our future, it'll be nice to have someone find that disc, fire it up and see our names (ohmygod....my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather really KNEW this guy).

So enjoy the Amazonian humidity outside today (better yet...stay inside with the A/C on and a cold one nearby).