Tales From the SOUTH Side...
Yes, friends...time for another installment of the reason why living down on my side of Fort Wayne is PREFERRED by those who are avoiding the law, committing welfare fraud, have a criminal past, or otherwise are people whose abhorrence knows NO boundaries.
But before we jump into that, I have to ask a question, and it's a pretty EASY one to answer:
WHAT FOG?
Apparently ALL the city schools have a 2 hour delay for FOG, but I personally believe that someone (from down here, no doubt) has STOLEN IT, because I'm just not seeing ANYTHING resembling FOG.
Nothing even close to a John Carpenter movie out there at all!
It IS a little HAZY, like someone tossed some gauze over the neighborhood (and not to stem the bleeding of taxpayers' money), but it's a far cry from what I've come to know as...FOG.
Visibility around here is normal (unfortunately...then I have to see the "neighbors"). I would probably bet that in the outlying areas AROUND Fort Wayne, it probably IS FOGGY.
Coming from Philly, I KNOW what FOG is. Jersey is the FOG capital of the USA, with the mountains of Western Pennsy running a close SECOND. Perhaps our Midwest "shipment" of FOG hasn't arrived yet?
I'm not holding MY breath on this one.
Meanwhile, back on the SOUTH side...
Yes, Virginia, we STILL have those nasty boomcars, or thumpers, or whatever the hell you want to call them.
And we've got those speeding "cafe bikes", or as we used to call them back in Philly: "crotch rockets".
Nice to hear some jerkoff unwind one of those past the house after 11PM, probably reaching speeds in EXCESS of 60 MPH, before he has to slow down for the next intersection (many do not).
And the police would be hard pressed to be able to nail these perps, unless he dumped the bike somehow.
With all the vacancies and condemned properties, replete with overgrown foliage along the alleys, there is no limit to the number of places these people can "run 'n hide".
Sure they might eventually get caught (as they all do), but it would sure be nice to get them when they're fresh out of the gate, as it were.
And what springtime morning would be complete WITHOUT the dulcet tones of some asshole's POS Chevy pickup using the device quaintly known as THE GHETTO DOORBELL (the horn) to get someone out of their rental crib at 0620 hours, hmm?
(I didn't know ANY of them woke up THAT early)
If there is one all-encompassing aspect to human behavior in abundance down here, it's BLATANT DISRESPECT FOR OTHERS.
Granted, most everyone else does NOT hold down a job, but for those decent FEW that still do, it's annoying as hell to hear a blaring horn instead of the beeping alarm rousing one from sleep.
Luckily, the horn was honking close to "get-up" time, and not as is quite typical at 3-FREAKING-AM!
An adjunct to that is the way many animals...I mean PEOPLE down here play music in their houses SO LOUD, you can hear it across the street...or down the street. This is a totally separate issue from the boomcar "phenomenon", and makes sitting outside (TRYING to enjoy your garden & the songbirds - before even they leave the area) problematic at best.
Now I don't NEED to know the latest lyrics from L'il Dipshit, or Putz Daddy, nor do I even care to hear them.
And I certainly would not want to have any child listening to the *F* word or *N* word every few seconds, but I guess THESE "people" think it's perfectly OK to bring THEIR kids up in such a "rich and socially substantial" environment...yeah, right.
Today is our RECYCLING day, and as always, we do "our" share. I separate the glass and plastic from the metal and stack that and the paper in the bins provided from the city (that we pay for anyway), as per city guidelines.
We are about the ONLY ONES that do this for several blocks in any direction!
What happened to ALL those brown and yellow bins? Probably being used for "auxiliary seating" when "de boyzcumbyfodecookout, nowhuahmsayin?" (sic). Must be nice to have all day, every day "available" for such social gatherings, hmm?
And how EXACTLY do you get the MONEY for the gas to drive there? Or the gold chains around your tattooed neck (when you should have iron ones on your legs, digging some ditches)? Or the money for the FOOD and BOOZE (gots ta have my "taste", yo), and those BLUNTS you be smokin' outside, that the PO-lease don' see?
Where indeed does that money come from (aside from the dwindling number of taxpayers here)?
Well, you get the idea, people...
This is the kind of "copy" you will NEVER see in ANY paper, or hear on ANY news show, because it is the TRUTH.
It's just as truthful as the perp that busted into a SE side house at 3:30-FREAKING-AM (at least he wasn't ringing that damn GHETTO DOORBELL) on the 3500 block of Robinwood Drive , near Rudisill Ave.
Yeah, we have those "home invasions" down here...all too often, and at all hours.
For you see, these thugs have all day, every day to SCOPE YOU OUT. They watch your house. They might be stopping by some OTHER house down the block or across the street, but THEY are watching YOUR comings and goings, in the hope that YOU will give them what they need to know, so they can break into your house, and avail themselves of YOUR stuff. Simple as that.
Best advice I could give to ANYONE down here (that is not a thug, and has to remain here, unless they want to go deep into hock to move again...like us) is to change things up from time to time. Make it difficult for THEM to rob YOU.
Human nature...you got to love it, right?
I call it survival...of the SMARTEST.
Funny how that works...life is supposed to be about...well, LIVING, and here many of us are...merely SURVIVING.
Living entails a certain amount of enjoyment, contentment and serenity, whereas survival is instinctual, and serves only one purpose; to continue by any means possible.
Perhaps some day soon, we can forget about all the crap politics, the criminals, the hands in our pockets for our money, the high prices, the low morale, the shouting, screaming, and honking, and take some time to do what we do BEST...
Namely...LIVING.
Be nice to get back to that...
So, as you search for that elusive fog today,
Stay safe out there, America.