Humpday Happenings...
Seems we wound up with close to SIX inches of (quieting) snow over the last 24 hours...not a bad haul.
Schools were on a 2-hour delay...some closed altogether (the smart ones) - plenty of time to get the driveway shoveled off for the Missus...not a problem. Even did out front and the back steps, so now I'm kicking back with a cup of java wonderfully laced with BOTH Kahlua and scotch...(warms the soul, trust me...lol)
Fortunately, it was a COLD snow with a lot less moisture than those BIG flake snowstorms (heavier to shovel)...that makes it a LOT easier. (for an old dog like me...lol)
But, it's a two-edged sword here.
With colder temperatures comes a loss of efficiency with any salt that INDOT drops down.
And whatever melts will quickly RE-FREEZE...and that makes driving "fun" (and not that good kinda fun).
Here in and around Fort Wayne, we had about SEVENTY weather-related accidents.
To be more precise, they were PEOPLE-related accidents. (aren't they ALWAYS?)
A lot of folks never take time to acclimate themselves to such diverse road conditions, and that makes it REALLY difficult for those of us that DO (and have).
I much prefer driving on streets DEVOID of other traffic than dealing with all those that think as long as the road LOOKS clear, they can go like bats out of hell.
Driving in BLIZZARD conditions is another thing...
Those few souls that are on the road WITH you tend to be the "hard-core" drivers - ones that DO know HOW to handle their vehicles, and space themselves far enough apart and proceed at slower, safer speeds.
But driving is only one piece of the puzzle here.
Another aspect is clearing the sidewalks (so people can USE them to walk around the city and it's neighborhoods).
All well and good when you live in areas where people still DO give a damn...such is not the case in OUR ghettohood.
Fort Wayne DOES have a city ordinance that CLEARLY states that sidewalks are to BE CLEANED (and by 0900 hours) on RESIDENTIAL streets. Same for businesses and parking lots.
That's why you will see ME outside before 0600 hours, shovel in hand, clearing OUR walks.
Can't say as much for all the governmentally-entitled vermin infesting our area.
My Dad had a "quaint" saying regarding such people:
"They're so damn lazy...they STINK!"
Yep, that sums it up REAL well down here.
With a very few exceptions like our house, all the rest never, I repeat NEVER get shoveled.
Now, the city HAS an "opportunity" here (as usual) to make some money, and the last time I checked, most cities LIKE doing that...it keeps them financially SOLVENT (always a good thing).
But, this is ANOTHER one of the city's ordinances that goes relatively UNENFORCED (kinda like that NOISE ordinance...and the LITTERING ordinance...and the LOITERING ordinance...well, you get the idea).
See, in good neighborhoods, people don't HAVE to be cited, or even TOLD to get them to shovel off their sidewalk.
People in those areas do it out of a sense of PRIDE.
Plus, they have a much higher level of personal responsibility when it comes to such routine things.
Again, you can't say that down here.
Used to be a time when the sidewalks were indeed cleared by the residents...but that was when we had home OWNERS with a vested interest in the area.
Back in Philly, where you had close to 60 row houses on a block, everyone did THEIR share of the sidewalk clearing, and if the snow got too deep, neighbors helped neighbors...that's JUST the way it was decades ago.
About ten of us got together one time and shoveled the entire length of the driveway out back (the whole block), so everyone could get to work. And a couple wives made us hot chocolate after we finished...not a bad reward for doing what was EXPECTED of us.
Today, here on the SE side of Fort Wayne, with only TEN houses on one block, you're lucky if ONE or perhaps TWO houses have their walks shoveled as we do with ours.
To me, it's what the city expects, and I'd be remiss to shirk what others expect of me...that's the way I was brought up.
But you have to remember that most all the rest down there have NO sense of compliance (except when they expect that next delivery of MJ to the crib).
If you PAID them to clean off the walks, they might do it, if they could find someone else to do it for them (and still collect the money).
THIS is what you come to expect from an entitlement-driven portion of the populace.
They ARE so lazy...they stink.
(and that's pretty damn lazy)
Cities like ours wind up pissing SO much (needed) revenue down the damn drain, and yet still allow parts OF that city to continually decline...and to what end?
Many people in the city, with homes and/or businesses, tend to hold THEMSELVES accountable to comply with ordinances drawn up by the city to make life BETTER (and in many cases, safer) for EVERYONE.
Then WHY does the city all but ignore those that do NOT hold themselves accountable for anything?
Seems we've got ourselves another damnable DOUBLE-STANDARD on our hands.
When did they start handing out free passes in life?
It makes you wonder, doesn't it?
One thing's for sure...you can't SHAME these morons into following the rules, and teach by example.
They don't pay the hell attention, except to watch your house to see when you come and go, so they can possibly break the hell in and take YOUR sh*t.
That they CAN do...and do well, by the list of robbery & burglary reports.
Personally, I've always looked at such snowy weather as a time when you take things a bit SLOWER...take a little more time for everything. And in that "extended" time, you can do something not many living around us do these days, namely THINK.
You have some borrowed moments of contemplation...time to ponder.
Then again, most of "us" tend to be more complex than those on the dole, having everything given to them.
We're more mature then the societal "infants" we have among us...those who never quite grow the hell up, or don't want to, because the taxpayers' money is paying for their lives and "changing their diapers" whenever they decide to crap their (saggy-baggy) pants.
If that sounds a bit on the cynical side...(tough sh*t) so be it.
I get sick and tired of seeing others do nothing, and get "rewarded for it".
I get frustrated when people don't want to be productive and contributing citizens.
I grow annoyed when such people are allowed to "get away" with things the rest of us do not, because we know the differences between right and wrong...and still embrace such things as civilized and proper.
Everyone needs to hold up their "piece of the log", as it were, or our society...any society will fail to move forward.
That's just common sense, people.
Yeah, this gets real old...real fast.
Funny thing, I think of doing such mundane things as cutting the lawn and shoveling the sidewalk as SOP being just a regular citizen.
No big deal to me.
But I also don't want some lazy-ass to fall on my sidewalks and "claim" it wasn't cleared...now THAT the city will bitch a fit about...but NOT making sure that EVERYONE clears their walkways...utterly a-f$cking-mazing, isn't it?
Ditto for wrong-way parking...the city has a VERY BLIND EYE when it comes to seeing that down here, and yet it's done DAILY...for HOURS at a time.
And ditto AGAIN for parking too close to a FIRE HYDRANT...gonna be fun when the FWFD can't hook up to it "if" a fire breaks out.
Someone should torch a vacant house and put that "theory" into practice.
Or, I could always hope that some numbnut FALLS ASLEEP WHILE COOKING and torches their OWN place.
Well, that's something I always have PLENTY of while living down here...HOPE.
I HOPE these assholes are chased out of my neighborhood.
I HOPE they get arrested for dealing drugs (which they are).
I HOPE they get their cars impounded for being TOO LOUD or having too dark a TINT on their damn windshields.
I HOPE some morons get cited for RECKLESS DRIVING.
I HOPE the FWHA and HUD just go the f$ck away.
I HOPE these assholes living around us try something, so I can perform a "public service".
I HOPE I can someday wake the hell UP from this societal nightmare the city has instigated against the decent folks on the south side.
And I will continue to hope...if for no other reason than "The Price Is Right, Bob".
--Lastly today, I have to thank the FWPD (grunts in the trenches) for doing the damn-near impossible...being able to get on scene with ALL these damn accidents going on all over.
(Lord knows the department does have it's problems with taking care of the small sh*t down here like noise and parking, that always leads to the big sh*t like drugs, gangs, guns, and murders)
It's not easy responding to a priority call at a blistering FIVE MPH, while you're fish-tailing all over in such bad weather conditions, right?
Makes one long for the halcyon days of studded SNOW TIRES and TIRE CHAINS...now THAT will get you from A to B a lot more pronto than standard tires in snow, slush and ice.
But the boys and girls in blue out there are doing the best they can, given what they have to work with, and that's commendable.
As for the road crews with the plows?
Well, the main roads are always a lot better than residential streets (ours suck-on-ice at the moment), and I suppose that when you have so many indigents and throwbacks in ONE area, the best thing to "keep them corralled in" is to plow THOSE streets LAST..makes a perverse kind of sense to me.
If these aborigines can't get around all too well, they'll be less prone to get doing what THEY do best...committing crime!
(Doesn't quite stop all those 62,96 calls though around 7AM - "domestic, party armed"-with a shotgun, does it?)
It DOES make it easier to track a suspect, however...(thanks for the footprints, you stupid idiot...now we know WHERE you ran to).
Never a dull moment down here, that's for sure. And sometimes, for a brief moment, it is VERY laughable.
Then again, isn't that what CARNIVAL SIDESHOWS are SUPPOSED to make us all do?
In the meantime...
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe (and warm) out there, America.