Friday Follies...

There are those times when you LONG for the end of the week, and other times that you would love to back up to LAST week...it all depends on how the mood strikes you...and what you're staring at during the current day.
We'll explore that stuff (and more) right after we see what the Hooseirland weather has in store for us.
Today will be a close repeat of yesterday, with highs once again in the upper 70s (and it was a great sleeping time last night), enough sunshine to make you think the future is THAT bright (you gotta wear shades), and no precipitation in the forecast (we really COULD use some rain).
Now, having dispensed with that, let's get back to what I was first talking about (and some other stuff)...
*** First out the gate today is a DRUG BUST on the city's (where else?) SOUTHEAST SIDE.
(big surprise THERE, hmm?)

From WOWO -  Two people are under arrest after a drug bust on the southeast side of Fort Wayne.
Detectives from the Vice and Narcotics Division, with the help of emergency services teams, searched a home on Lillie Street, near Drexel Avenue yesterday.
Police report there were five adults and two kids in the home.
Detectives found cocaine and drug paraphernalia and arrested 56-year-old Sybil Brunson and 29-year-old Dawn Allen, who face multiple charges

Sybil and Dawn - BAD girls!

Dealing drugs with KIDS in the damn home...simply  A-F$cking-Mazing, isn't it?
And how much you want to bet that THESE two were part of the "Government-Sponsorship Program" that seems to be "helping" SO  many poverty-stricken people in America?
People like THIS are living on YOUR dime, my friends.
*** And while we're on the subject of the SE side of Fort Wayne...
The headline reads: "Southeast Side Study Could Drum Up Development".
Here's the story link (with video):
http://www.wane.com/news/local/southeast-side-study-could-drum-up-development
Really?

REALLLLLLY???
You're sh*tting me, right?
How much lipstick you think you can put on this (SE side) PIG before it stops looking LIKE a damn pig, anyway?
Again, we see people with all these marvelous solutions, when the REAL problem is tossed to the side...the problem that will NOT go away until it is ADDRESSED.
And that problem is...CRIME!

This time, these people are talking about MORE "affordable housing", just like Renaissance Pointe.
That area, although it does look nice and inviting, and has been able to  fill all the houses currently erected, is but a small ISLAND with a sea of blight and crime surrounding it. And how long do you think it will be before another incursion INTO this nice, new housing area takes place?
We keep hearing all these studies...and surveys...and proposals...and task forces...all created to make this part of town BETTER...and for the last 15 years, I (personally) have seen NOTHING at all being done.
I HAVE seen more crime...and I HAVE seen businesses CLOSING...and I HAVE seen houses turned into rental cribs, and filled with some of the worst people that could inhabit a civilized dwelling, but NO improvements.

Naturally, the FEDS (read HUD) are flipping for the payouts with (get this) "Entitlement funds", which means YOUR tax dollars will once again be dumped down whatever housing toilet is nearby. That's not how you "improve" any neighborhood or area of any city.
Cripes, gentrification would be a much better choice, IF the city had the guts to pursue THAT.
But doing that would mean evicting a LOT of the human refuse already living down here, in favor of more "upscale" people.
Naturally, you would have to get rid of the CRIME, and "taking out the trash" (evictions and buyouts) in the area would help to no small degree there.

The McMillan housing development is but a HUGE field now east of S. Anthony...drove past it the other day...make a nice PARK, but at least THAT crime-ridden mess of hovels is GONE.
Heather Presley-Cowan (deputy director of community development aka Section 8 heaven) states "The SE side is where people WANT to live". (yeah, decent people like WIFEY AND MYSELF...not the indignant, drug-dealing, loud-ass scum you manage to place ALL the hell around us)
Yeah, lets stick some folks into nice, new (taxpayer-funded) housing so they can fall asleep with the stove on and burn the damn place to the ground.
That makes TOTAL sense, if you're talking about NEVER solving the issues down here, which is apparently what the city has in mind.
A majority of the people down here have ALREADY demonstrated that they simply cannot LIVE in a civilized area.

They cannot manage a household, take care of the children they crap out every 9 months, or the "pets" they chose to let roam loose on the damn streets.
They only care about all the free sh*t they can get while doing nothing to EARN any of it...that's it in a nutshell.
And crime becomes the "diversion" to break up the monotony in their meaningless and pitiful lives.
Facts are facts, and that's the truth, no sugar-coating required...
*** And that brings me to OUR lovely abode.

Yes, it's time for the next chapter of the Hooserian SAGA OF BEOROOF...!
When last we left our intrepid homeowners (a novelty of the SE side these days), the roofing was going as planned.

Looking good...

Ditto here.

The back side and addition on the house had been completed and the front side had been torn off and new tar paper nailed down (all holes patched up in good order as well) in anticipation of the new shingles that would be going on today.
I had instructed the roofers to "take care" when doing the tear-off, as we had flower beds alongside our steps.
We had coneflowers, gellardia, geraniums, fountain grasses, sweet woodruff...a nice mixture.
I use the word "HAD" because when Wifey and went to water last evening after the roofers had left, we found  nothing short of TOTAL DEVASTATION out front.

Just when you thought you had curb-appeal...BAM!

The ONLY things left alive (barely) were the fountain grasses...everything else had been nicely RAKED THE HELL AWAY.
It looks nice and "clean" now...clean enough to START PLANTING stuff...just like I did back in APRIL and MAY.
To say we were both a bit more than "bothered" by this is an understatement.
You spend the TIME and MONEY to make it look nice, and then THIS happens.
WHAT THE HELL were these guys thinking???
I would have preferred that they leave the area ALONE, and that I would clean it the hell up.
Since the Summer is pretty much gone, the best we can do now, is to stick some MUMS in there, and hope that does the trick until NEXT SPRING, when we can start anew with the flower beds we already HAD that were doing well, until this "intervention".
I swear, no matter HOW hard you try, you never can seem to have ANYTHING nice around this damn ghettohood.
If the kids aren't running all over stuff, you have critters damaging things, and if that isn't enough, outside sources come in to do a repair and screw with things.
You can't seem to catch a damn break.
Hope the ROOF is finished a lot BETTER than everything under it has turned out.
And so ends another soon-to-be-forgotten installment of the Saga of Beoroof. 
Stay tuned for (hopefully) the FINAL chapter in this Hoosierian legend.
*** Lastly today, there seems to be a lack of PRIDE these days.
It certainly shows with the "people" that infest this area and happen to live all around us.
Thankfully, WE don't suffer a similar fate.

You also see a lack of pride when it comes to service workers, be they waitresses, bartenders, store personnel...whatever.
What strikes me as really odd, is that many of us have grown somewhat "accustomed" to this, and shrug it off.
That's NOT how things used to be.
It wasn't just a case of stores or people just meeting a customer's expectations....
It was usually a case of EXCEEDING the customer's expectations, and THAT is where America used to shine.
You got what you paid for...and whenever you paid some amount of money, you got a good deal. That's just the way people operated in times past.
Today...not so much.

We're more careless, more cavalier, more rushed about...
We don't even bother (in many cases) to even FIX things any longer...we just toss them the hell OUT.
When things become that disposable, pride has to suffer a loss when it comes to the human condition.
And with such crap as Obamacare, it would appear that even PEOPLE will become the next disposable item.
This should never be allowed to happen.
We need to take back the pride we all USED to have with our work ethic, things we possess, and the way we present ourselves to one another.
We can still be good stewards of that which we are fortunate enough to be allowed to have.
All that is required is the WILL to embrace such noble pursuits. Then we ALL come out a lot better.
DO have yourselves a great weekend.

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