Tuesday Tidbits...

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...
(Always did like that song)
Yesterday's weather tossed a curve-ball at me...it didn't even GET to 70 degrees (66 only in Ft. Wayne), but TODAY, we're promised the low 70s...and it will be without sunshine, due to increasing clouds throughout the day, with a good chance of rain later this evening into tonight. But, it's tomorrow that will start to feel a LOT more like Fall with temps ONLY getting into the mid to upper FIFTIES with a couple morning showers, and it's THOSE temps that will follow us around the rest of the week like a love-starved puppy (or a hungry cat).
So, without any further ado, let's pour another cup of whatever it is you're enjoying and get this show on the road.
*** First up - the resurgence of the Glenbrook Commons area.

It amazes me how an area that was all but barren, with the exception of one of MY favorite haunts - TOYS R US - has managed to be reclaimed with damn near EVERY former vacancy now occupied once again.
Here's a story that bears witness:
http://www.wane.com/news/local/glenbrook-commons-attracts-big-stores
The video is worth a watch.
Now, in most ANY real estate, it's all about "location", right?
And having Glenbrook Mall as a "neighbor" is a damn good start.

The latest additions to the Commons are Burlington Coat Factory,  Dunham Sports (gotta get me there soon - lots of good firearms and ammo sales) and Ollie's (kinda reminds me of BIG LOTS...they do seem like twins).
These stores are major players, and not some "here today, gone tomorrow" gig.
Naturally, ALL of this takes place UP NORTH...and that's very sad in a few ways..
Down here in the "Ghettoland Abusement Park and Discount House of Streets Pharmaceuticals"
We ALSO have a vacant strip mall...where K Mart is currently located (and will be LEAVING come mid-January).

Soon to become the latest "Big Empty".

We DO have a MENARDS and a WAL MART, which are big box locales...BUT there is a certain specificity that precludes the addition of further retail venues in these parts, and it's the same reason why OTHER areas enjoy retail prosperity...
It's the PEOPLE...simple as that.
How many rental properties are inhabited by section 8ers up around Glenbrook anyway?
(hint - too FEW to mention)
How many deadbeat landlords can be found around Glenbrook...or ANY place in that immediate location?
(hint - see the previous hint)
And what comes along in tow WITH such low-information people?
That would be a lot of crime, and THAT alone will chase away a LOT of investors that would consider opening a store.
After all, we DO have improvement boards, districts, task forces, you name it for damn near every OTHER location but down here.

Well, we DO have the SE Business Partnership, but with little to no REAL business coming or growing, it seems rather non sequitor, right?
I'm not against new businesses coming to town at all...it's good for the local economy. Jobs are created, more choices for shoppers when it comes to different items...healthy business competition...ALL aspects of private enterprise working as it should.
What I am against is a city that seems to have written off an entire quadrant (which is growing into other areas) because they can't seem to figure out how to deal with crime in a PROACTIVE manner. All they can do is REACT, and that does little good.
Change the people, and you WILL change the level, quality and quantity of the retail mrket down here...can't get any easier than that.
Moving on...
*** Speaking of shopping, did you catch that fracas that erupted down in a Springhill, Louisiana WAL MART store when a computer glitch occurred?

Dat be all MAH sh$t, man!

Well, here's one account of the story:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/chaos-la-walmart-stores-ebt-cards-dump-spending-limits-article-1.1484953

Now, depending on WHICH news source you chase after, you will hear TWO distinct "versions"
One version calls this "shopping sprees", while others (rightly) call this what it was...CHAOS.

Wha'choo MEAN ah can't get me an IPAD wif mah EBT card?

It seems the store's computer system stopped showing the EBT card credit limit/balance for the government-sponsored shopping contingent....
(uh, oh, that can't be good)
Well, "good" news travels fast with such people, and they flocked to the store and EMPTIED ALL THE DAMN SHELVES...

That's not the Lousiana Purchase "I" remember from history class.

Talk about legalized "looting"...didn't we see something similar post-Katrina?
When the store got the glitch fixed, and EBT card limits started appearing once again, the (now PO'ed) shoppers just abandoned their carts wherever they were and left the store.
Thing is, that STORE will be paying the tab for the feds and their sponsorship of these mooks that saw an advantage to take (as these people always will do when given half a chance).

Lookit all de "free sh$t"!

This is nothing more than what we used to call (in Philly)...TNB.
You can figure it out for yourselves, but you probably already know what it stands for.
Wasn't it Plato that said that democracy was only one step from anarchy?
Sure looked like it at that Wal Mart store.
*** Last night I saw a city dump truck with a flatbed trailer hauling a front-loader with a back hoe park in FRONT of our "Fortress".

Now, that immediately gave me pause to wonder WTF was going on NOW?
I mean, we did not have ANY utility issues, and there was no water geyser spewing from any holes in the streets, unlike back in Philly, when ONE four-foot water main burst, creating a FIFTY-FOOT crater in the middle of one street when it erupted.
THAT was an emergency repair.
I didn't hear of ANY construction going on either, and no "door hangers" were placed, as is typical whenever such work is to be done.
They instruct people not to park on the street during work hours, and so on, along with boil water advisories or low pressure warnings.

Yeah, it looked like THIS dump truck.

So, I call the FWPD to see see what's going on.
First of all, if you HAVE to call the desk THESE days...it better not be anything other than 9-1-1, because they now have a freaking MENU you have to listen to in order to route your call into dispatch...
(cripes almighty)
Yeah, the days of a warm body at the other end might be going the way of the passenger pigeon, unless you HOLD until the ENTIRE menu is done being described to you...THEN, you get a living being on the horn.
(and you hope they know their job)

It's not THIS bad...yet.

I had a woman that I managed to confuse right off the bat...and I wasn't even TRYING...LOL.
I always try to be as CONCISE as possible to roll the officer out here ASAP and get the call taken care of.
It's called EFFICIENCY for a REASON, people.
Well, the entire call lasted for about TWENTY minutes...(good battery on the new cordless phone system)
I surmised it was the city's WATER department (blue cabs on the dump trucks...kinda obvious), and the dispatcher informed me that after checking with city departments, there was "some kind of work" in the area. Well, I told her to NOT roll an officer, as I concluded it wasn't necessary at that point, but I mean this was TOO damn weird.
WHO works into the night on an apparent NON-emergency (talk about O/T costs) and spends the better part of two hours doing little real work? I didn't see any torn up streets and barricades to show they did anything. Not to mention, the two guys sat in the dump track for over a half hour before thet got out and walked around our corner out past Avondale (they should have parked THERE is that was where the work was).
Guess the taxpayers here ARE getting what they are paying for...sort of.
*** Lastly today, I don't think ANY of us here can deny any longer that it's the WORLD that is f$cked up, and that we're ALL OK, right?
Sure seems more like that scenario to me,anyway.

We're up to our eye-teeth in all this "PC-BS", zero-tolerance for the WRONG applications, diversity for diversity sake, denying our AMERICAN heritage and culture for everyone else's, letting those mooks on society's fringe able to dictate to the masses HOW we will behave, WHAT we can say, WHEN we can say it, and on and on it goes...
We see a war of Christmas, a war on women, a war on Christians, and a war on principles.
And personally, I'm sick and damn tired of ALL OF IT...not some of it, or part of it, but the whole damn stinking f$cking mess of it.
I want MY country back...the same one YOU remember...the one where being a Christian was normal and not like being a pariah.
I want to be able to say a prayer in public at a graduation or event WITHOUT the ACLU saying I'm stepping on someone's "rights".

I want to see manger scenes and hear people saying "Merry Christmas" once again...ALL over the place.
I'd like to see a helluva lot fewer DOUBLE standards, and a lot more of BETTER standards...like the ones we knew as kids.
And I want to see a LOT more people being a LOT more responsible with a LOT more personal accountability.
"The few and the proud" might refer to the MARINES, but it shouldn't refer to the type of folks we knew throughout our lives...the type that help found this nation...OUR nation.

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