Tales From The Southside...
I can honestly say that this IS cold (for this part of the country anyway).
No, it's DAMN COLD!
And if there's ONE thing I plan to do in my NEXT life, it's have an ATTACHED GARAGE for the house...LOL.
Let's face it, when it comes to HEAT, many detached garages are like barns...DRAFTY.
Only difference is the type of HORSEPOWER you have in them.
Our only source of "heat" (if you can call it that) is from one of those oil-filled radiator heaters, and unless you stand RIGHT in front of it, you don't feel much at all. But I still can keep the temps 20 degrees higher than the outside, and at THREE DEGREES, (or less) that's saying something for a 2-car garage.
With the constant snow coming down, I was rather busy. I had to shovel the driveway once, the back steps and walkway FOUR times, and the front sidewalk THREE times. Talk about needing a nap (that I never took).
Curiously enough, when the schools dismissed early (1400 hours - they should have never opened yesterday, but that's another story), the local kids came around with SHOVELS to apparently relieve me of some needed cash just so they could CLEAR my sidewalks. Sorry, kids. I do it for FREE...beat THAT price.
But therein lies the ultimate IRONY here.
Think about it, if you live down here (currently), or have DRIVEN through (on your way to a NICER neighborhood), you notice that hardly ONE SINGLE SOUL USES THE DAMN SIDEWALKS TO BEGIN WITH!
They all walk smack dab in the middle of the damn STREET!
Seems these kids want to make a fast buck for work that would be otherwise wasted on the "general populace".
The only reason I shovel MY walk is out of habit...and principle (and it's the law, according to ANOTHER NCE ordinance the city never seems to enforce). Since we're about the nicest house on the block (for a place built back around 1945), I say what the hell. Let the others know what you CAN do when you WANT to, as in making a place look inviting (and not in the inviting burglars to come and visit way).
Same goes for leaves and cutting the lawn. I do it because that's the way I was brought up.
You TAKE CARE of what you've been "given" in life.
You become a "steward" of what life allows you to receive, but moreover...
You LEAD BY EXAMPLE.
Apparently, that's not good enough for some of the aboriginal flotsam in OUR area.
As I was on my THIRD shovel of the front walk, a black woman, who we've all come to know (here) as the "Frostbitten Grillin' Mama" or, as I like to call her, "Mighty Mouth" opened her door, shouted "WHITE TRASH", then ducked back inside her house.
WTF???
Since I am one of a mere handful of whites LEFT around here (oh yes, we DO OWN our house, and do NOT rely on any government to fill our lazy, outstretched hand as we whine away our lot in life in between swills from a liquor bottle or between puffs from that crack pipe), and since I was the ONLY ONE outside at the time, I must believe that this (obvious racial) SLUR was directed for me. And why, I have NO idea, other than the fact that we called the police on them a week or so ago for playing a car stereo loudly for over 15 minutes (and the police actually CAUGHT them, even with the low priority of the call). I also have a sneaking suspicion that it was HER who tossed an egg at the side of our house shortly after that.
Now, I'm basically one of those "live and let live" people. You DON'T bother me, and I WON'T bother you (and even let you to keep breathing). But when you INFLICT yourself and your "ghetto lifestyle" upon me to the extent that I can't enjoy being INSIDE my house, then, I have to do something about it. And rest assured...I WILL.
Calling ME white trash is about as far as East is from West, but you have to understand the primitive mind. She has NO concept of RIGHT or WRONG. It's just do WHAT you want, WHEN you want to, to WHOMEVER you want, as LONG as you want to. The government pays the freight, so you can be LAZY, LOUD, and DRUNK almost all the time (when you're not high as a frigging kite, that is).
Great role model and a credit to HER race, huh?
And by all means, do whatever YOU feel is necessary to chase the LAST vestige of decency THIS neighborhood will ever see away, as you have all the rest. Who wants those nasty decent WHITE FOLK in the area, anyway, keeping it all nice and tidy and $hit?
All they do is plant flowers, paint their house, and make no trouble. Hell, we can't have THAT around the 'hood, can we?
Reverse racism?
Black racism?
Oh yeah, we got it in ABUNDANCE down here...trouble is, no one wants to ADMIT to it. Damn shame.

It ruins it for all the DECENT Black people that COULD be living here as well as most any other race, nationality,
sexual preference or religion. And I've got no problem with ANY of those folks.
Where the hell IS all this "diversity" I'm supposed to embrace?
Only thing I see is a diverse number of idiots and black racists with their OWN agenda.
And it's this form of BLACK racism that fosters other forms of racism...something ELSE no one wants to admit to.
Like I said, my wife and I don't bother anyone and basically leave most all of these people to their own devices. It's when they encroach on OUR lives by their noise, actions, illicit activities, or law-breaking, that I have get involved.
I only ask that they keep THEIR problems THEIRS...don't make them MINE.
They won't like it if they piss me off, trust me.
I can get along with damn near ANYONE (I have in the past), and have been called a lot of names (by my OWN race) for my associations with people of color as far back as high school, but "white trash" was never one of them...and never will be.
In my opinion, it would be in HER best interest to MOVE (near more of "her kind")...and ASAP.
I've watched this neighborhood slide (further) DOWNHILL for a DECADE with NO help from outside agencies, and little assistance from those that COULD help. Every house that goes up for sale becomes the next rental "crib" for those with a "history".
NO background checks ensures that crime will migrate from block to block. And not one of the city leaders, although they readily admit we DO have a problem (or three) here, want to seriously get the ball rolling to CHANGE this, and not offer any REAL solutions.
How novel is that? Perhaps its should be: How TYPICAL is that?
And what are people like US supposed to do in the interim, eh?
Seems this part of town could honestly use an ENEMA....and we could start at "the top" of the food chain.
I'm about ready to tell everyone here that "The doctor's in the house".
Time for a change?
Sure as hell seems right to ME.
And it better be CHANGE I can BELIEVE in...NOT have to move away from.