Friday Follies...

And the end of another week has arrived.
Can we stand the strain?
Gonna make it short and sweet today...for no particular reason.
(actually, the crims aren't all that busy...for a change)
Today's Hooseirland weather will be partly cloudy with highs reaching the UPPER 70s, and getting warmer the farther into the weekend we go.
Aside from that, it's going to be clear sailing...until someone comes along and louses it the hell up...LOL.
Meanwhile, let's get started with...the rest of the story...
*** First up is our daily edification to the month that nothing ever happens in, otherwise known as:
: Bobby G's This Day in August History!
August 16 - 
1812 - American general William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army. (but even the Brits didn't want it THEN, so we took it back in 1813, and we know how THAT turned out today)
1858 - President Buchanan inaugurates the new Transatlantic Telegraph Cable by exchanging greeting with Queen Victoria. A weak signal forces the shutdown of the service a few weeks later. (and the Brits STILL didn't take back DETROIT...lol)
1954 - The first issue if Sports Illustrated is published.
1989 - A solar flare creates a geomagnetic storm that affects microchips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.

Okay, who pissed off the sun?

2010 - China overtakes Japan as the world's second largest economy
And, yes...it's Children's Day in Paraguay.
(hmm...gotta kinda poetry to it as well)
So there you have it...all the things YOU need to know about today.
Moving on...
*** Getting a new roof on the house is one of THOSE things homeowners dread, and with good reason.

You go and blow more than a few thousand bucks, and it doesn't affect the VALUE of the house anywhere close to the price it cost you.
If we spend say $6K for a new roof, we'd be lucky to see a value increase of barely $2K, and that's being generous, given the nature of OUR part of the ghettohood. But, it's something that HAS to be done...eventually.
But, the alternative of having a leaking roof and interior damage isn't really an option, unless one prefers an indoor "water feature".
I like my waterfalls outside...yeah, I'm a traditionalist.
Any money you put into a house in a blighted area is pretty much wasted )even if the area wasn't blighted when you moved the hell in), because it only means the house is worth more to YOU, the owner, and not the city, thanks to the rest of the properties that are kept in such wonderful and chronic DISrepair.
Even the land the house rests upon isn't worth what it should be, and you can thank the government-sponsored lazy-asses for that as well.

For examp[e, whenever we do have a street-sweeper run through the area, it doesn't take more than a day for the place to look JUST as it did BEFORE the sweeper did it's thing...cans, wrappers, plastic bottles...you name it, and it's back on our streets faster than a perp in our courthouse.

Yet, it's not the AREA that's bad...it's the "people" that infest the area, and I'm certainly NOT talking about normal folks, few as they seem to be.
A blighted area becomes that way due to a group of entitled idiots that have NO vested interest in an area into which the government placed them.
There is no sense of pride...not even in themselves.
They just take and take...never giving anything back.
It's too damn hard to plant a flower bed to them, but's it's okay for them to toss trash on YOUR property...yep, it's another one of those damnable double-standards, because no one seems to call out these mooks for doing what they do and acting the way they act.
So, you always hope for the best, expect the worst and take each day as it comes.

Can't ask for more than that, can you?
Well, you can,for all the good THAT does.
*** Lastly today, I read this story in the paper about a new development up on Gump Rd where they want to build some houses in the $300K range...and that's pretty damn opulent, if you ask me.

But the people living there in houses worth $1 MIL and more are bitching a fit saying it will lower THEIR property values...
Here's a case of the rich-ass NIMBYS in the group, popping a vein over houses that Wifey and I can only dream about, saying they will lower the property values of those million-dollar homes...gimme a damn break.
Are all these rich bastards planning to MOVE next year?
We're NOT talking low-income housing here, folks...it's NOT like in OUR part of the city, where all you seem to HAVE is LOW-income housing...or LOWER income housing...or even NO-income housing..
Those are the choices down here, and it doesn't matter if you buy a house or even rent it...they're all seemingly "low income".
That sense of pride I mentioned should be something that all these "poverty-stricken" people would want to chase after...or at least be MADE to chase after.
Put some "sweat-equity" into that house the government taxpayers got for you and keep it looking nice, instead of breaking out windows, doors and whatever the hell else they bust up on a regular basis.
We always looked at such things a might differently...
We always referred to it as "being a good steward", and it also means being GRATEFUL for whatever it is that you have, rather than lust after things you can't afford, and will gather dust JUST as readily.
And, that worked well enough for most folk.
I think what we really need is a LOT more stewards of the good kind.
It definitely won't hurt, and perhaps people will come to appreciate things a bit more, and thereby appreciate one another as well.
We can but hope, can't we?
Have yourselves a great weekend.

Be well, make a difference to someone today, and as always...
Stay SAFE out there, America.