Monday Musings...
What a difference a week makes.
Just LAST week, we were damn near knee-deep in snow, and the city (here) was looking at a near standstill scenario.
This week, it's a whole other story.
We had TWO days of temps ABOVE freezing, and we get to see the street surfaces once again.
The bad news is that we also get to see (and feel) all the POTHOLES underneath this mess.
Fort Wayne city officials "say" that when called in, potholes will be fixed within FOUR (count 'em 4) HOURS!
We might just put that to the test sometime soon.
In a way I'm kinda glad to see all this snow dissipate.
All that shoveling, worrying about Wifey being safe on the roads with all the idiots who DON'T know how to drive in this stuff.
having schoolkids walk in the middle of the street through the snow and slush.
Now, they just walk down the middle of the streets with NO snow or slush to contend with.
Some things (or people) NEVER seem to change.
I know our patio is looking more like a patio now, an less like the slit trenches on the ice planet HOTH!
But, through all of this (and more) time and life marches on...
*** We now have our 4th HOMICIDE of the year in Fort Wayne.
(and a black guy didn't do it...I'm amazed)
Here's the skinny on what went down:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110213/LOCAL07/302139931
And here's the perp...(nice mugshot).
This still places us ahead of LAST year, and Lord knows we've plenty of year left.
I found it odd that the person reporting the dead man in a garage went about TWO MILES to pound on a (random) door to alert someone about the body.
I mean it's not as though other houses NEARBY the garage where the man was found were not available to report the crime.
And leave it to a person who is probably one of several in the ENTIRE city who DOES NOT have a cell phone (you can include me in that group...don't have one yet and not breaking down any doors to get one).
How the man died was obvious (BFT - blunt force trauma), but the way it was reported was odd. Still, it WAS reported and you have to give that citizen credit for doing that these days.
*** I have to correct an error in observation I've made several times during the recent snowfall.
I had stated that the locals living around us are so lazy they stink, and that they don't do a single damn thing to make the area better.
I may have to take that back...they DO manage to do ONE thing...
GET THEIR VEHICLES WASHED OFF.
I have never seen as many consistently CLEAN vehicles as I have during the snowstorm and it's aftermath...!
It's like they have nothing to do BUT clean their vehicles.
Our cars area garaged, and even I can't clean Wifey's car off ALL the time.
I mean, after you clean the car off, there is STILL salt and water on the roads, so it'll just get filthy AGAIN...and again.
Hey, maybe a CLEAN car makes the stereo LOUDER...yeah, that must be it.
I much prefer to wait until most of this crap is off the streets before I clean Wifey's car.
Besides, we don't get government "subsides" to fund those twice-daily trips to the car wash, as others obviously do.
*** Saw a couple good shows on PBS yesterday (yeah, they slip up once in a while and provide DECENT entertainment and historically ACCURATE programming).
The first show was on Herbert Hoover entitled LANDSLIDE.
Here was a President that won the election BY a landslide, and was defeated after his first term (also) by a landslide.
He was a man who embraced something called AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM.
You can still order a pamphlet written BY Hoover himself in 1922 (for $5) here:
http://www.hooverassociation.org/hoover/american_individualism.php
Little did he know after taking office HOW MUCH crap would hit the fan (which was a relatively NEW contrivance in those days).
He couldn't take ONE step after the Wall St. crash of 1929 without stepping in a big pile of poo (up to his knees)!
You feel bad for the guy...trying to do the right thing, and having all these EXTERNAL problems preventing it.
Here's the WIKI on our 31st president:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover
He was the right man...just at a very wrong time.
And when you dig a little deeper, you discover things that I never knew, nor is ever taught in today's American History class.
--The other show was about a school in Bordentown, NJ (I know that area - been through it a few times - very nice).
This was an ALL BLACK school that promoted ETHICS, INTEGRITY and CIVILITY among its students (whatta novel idea THESE days).
It was originally known as the Ironsides Normal School, befre it was designated as the New Jersey Manual Training and Industiral School for Colored Youth.
Here's the WIKI on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordentown_School
It was also referred to as the "Tuskegee of the North".
I found it fascinating that noted people as W.E.B. DuBois AND Booker T. Washington supported this noble venture.
Du Bois promoted the intellectual aspect, while Washington fostered a more PRACTICAL curriculum.
Lecturers at the school included Albert Einstein and Paul Robeson.
It was operated year-round, had it's OWN farm and was relatively self-sufficient.
This was not a case of being segregated, but rather separated...a big difference (one being forced, the other chosen).
And during it's time of operation...it WORKED (and damn well).
Students came away from there a lot better prepared for life with the SKILLS required to become leaders and not government "wards".
If you get a chance, watch the show called: A Place Out of Time - The Bordentown School (2009).
Sad to say, the school shut it's doors in June of 1955, and was, for a brief time used as a facility for the developmentally-disabled.
Since 2000, it has been a site used by the NJ Dept. of Corrections for juvenile offenders.
Such an undeserved fate for so wonderful a concept and practice.
*** Lastly, today is Valentine's Day.
Now, there was a time, LONG ago, when I wore my heart plainly on my sleeve, and was a huge "romantic".
These days, it's all I can do keep from letting emotions get the best of me.
I still hear some song, or watch a movie, and some dialogue or tune will invoke those "old days"...days when romanticism was looked upon in ways that we don't readily see today.
Maybe I've become more STOIC these days, than anything else.
That's not to say I'm lacking passion. I'm still passionate about a GREAT many things.
But, I also believe that you need to temper everything in your life.
Ben Franklin said: "Everything in moderation - nothing in excess".
Sounds like a plan.
At least by following THAT advice, the number of "runaway trains" in one's life is greatly minimized.
And God knows we've plenty of THOSE trains on the tracks of life as it is.
Most of them seem to be in EXPRESS mode, stopping for nothing or no one.
Many come from places we've never been, heading to destinations as yet undetermined.
We just need to get ourselves a timetable and figure out WHICH train might be the right one for us.
Depends on where WE are going, doesn't it?
It also depends on where we just came from, too.
Valentine's Day is a day that we "demonstrate" our love to someone.
I think that should go without saying the other 364, but I guess I'm still (down deep) a romantic.
I believe that even if we don't have that "someone", we can at least demonstrate it to OURSELVES.
Face it, you send the MOST time with "you" as it is, right? Being able to give yourself that occasional indulgence by acknowledging WHO you are is but one way to keep that love going.
If you can't love yourself, it's pretty damn hard to love anyone else.
So maybe today...you can indulge yourself...let YOU know that YOU care about...YOU.
You ARE the best YOU there is in the whole world, after all.
No one else can come close.
Have yourselves a great week.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.