Monday Musings...

And here we go again...still in the deep-freeze here in the Hoosierland, or as we used to say back in Philly:
"Same sh*t - different day".
It's currently minus TWO degrees outside (0615 hrs), feels more like negative TWELVE. Don't expect much at all in the way of anything close to a "high" today, unless you're a drug-dealing thug on the city's SE side...or a meth-head driving with a one-pot cooking on the back seat next to your toddler.
The temps today will only reach about THIRTEEN DEGREES...that's it, folks...sorry.
And even the sun won't be helping with any melting - might as well be cloudy.

Schools are on a 2-hour delay, and good luck to all those buses that have to attempt to travel on too many streets that have not been adequately plowed and/or cleared...ditto for the teachers that have to make it to a CLEAR street to travel.
So, while the world keeps spinning, let's fill up that hot beverage and see what's been going on over the last 72 hours...
*** At our "Fortress", it's been a study in frustration, as in PO'ed at the city for the LACK of services.

We're pushing ELEVEN inches NOW...

We STILL have not had BOTH sides of our street plowed, and with an additional 2 inches of snow over the weekend, it has NOT made this bad situation ANY better at all. In fact, Saturday night, one car got itself STUCK at our intersection.
After about 20 minutes of trying to get clear, I guess the driver walked away from it, leaving the 4-way flashers on...for another 30 minutes.
So, I called the recently-encrypted FWPD, to which they arrived on scene within 10 minutes, called for a hook, and got the damn car removed...only took about 90 minutes to clear an intersection, which, if it had been PLOWED PROPERLY, could have saved both a PD call AND having to call the hook out.
Again, if "I" had not called, that car would have SAT there...these people down here DO that kind of sh*t...
You just can't sit by and do nothing...because THAT is what will get done.
But, I'm sure our MAYOR had this (and other situations) WELL in hand...

Screw the South side - I was meant for THIS...

He was too busy at the Special Olympics (which is a good cause, but...), making SNOW ANGELS near downtown to be that concerned with OUR plight down here. Bet HIS street was cleared off immaculately.
*** This past Saturday, Wifey and I set out for grocery shopping, and it was snowing lightly THEN, but I figured better to go when the snow has just started to fall and was still light, then waiting...a good call.

There IS a single car PATH through this SOMEWHERE.

Road conditions were dipping well into the lower end of the NOMINAL range by the time we got home, and luckily, we didn't get stuck once, in spite of lousy plowing and roads which were again becoming snow-covered.

Easy to install makes Bob happy.!

We also stopped at Menards, because they had a sale on SMOKE DETECTORS. We have had our old ones since we moved here, and I thought it was time to swap out the old ones for some new ones. At $5.99 a pop (with battery) that was a GOOD deal, too.
We got some other items as well,and made it back home safely...not bad for a 2-wheel drive RWD automobile.
After that, we stayed in and watched the streets get crappy again...and not one plow came by to :"finish" the job of opening the OTHER side of our street. So, we still have damn near knee-deep snow covering OUR side of the street at about a car's width...
(but we DO have a nice and CLEAR downtown area)
Moving on...
*** It's pretty much "official" now...the FWPD scanner channel is all but totally quiet now.
The ONLY chatter you pick up now is some COUNTY officers, usually responding to traffic clusterf$cks along the interstates.
What the MEDIA sources did NOT tell you, is that both the FWFD and TRAA (ambulance) have ALSO "gone dark", because THEY use the SAME trunked system AS the police.

All those $500 scanners - expensive paper-weights.

It was nice to hear "one in custody - male black" up to THIRTY times a day...made me feel as if the number of perps in my part of the ghettohood were actually going DOWN.
But I suppose I can see a slight bit of reasoning behind this...having a stranger show up to an active scene (with a handgun) wanting "to help" the police...not a good thing when you're trying to keep everyone BEHIND a perimeter.at a crime scene.
I can see both sides of this dilemma, but the solution seems to have involved a very WIDE BRUSH.
What DOES bother me is having to rely on the MEDIA for such stories (and I hear they will either purchase OR lease special encryption-key scanners to STILL be able to hear the bands we USED to hear). The media might tend to skew the facts, or (worse)...omit them altogether.

As long as the ENTIRE tale is told - no problem here.

No longer can WE, the taxpayers who pay for the LEOs and ALL the nice gear they are allowed to use at OUR expense have "real-time" police, fire, or ambulance traffic on the radios.
THEN where does one go for the truth about what happens without the rank sensationalism we're used to hearing from these other sources?

For people like me, it's like being made deaf AND blind, and should something go down around here, and the police come door-to-door to ask for information, I'd tell them outright that "you took away my ability TO help you, so why bother asking me for anything at this point?"
And, should I see someone acting hinky around our house, I'd shoot FIRST and concern myself about all the other crap LATER.
After all, the police tend to show up AFTER the crime's committed, so what's the hassle there, hmm?
Some might argue that the  scanners would notify WHERE the po-po are being dispatched to, and I would simply counter and say that calls don't ALWAYS have to be broadcast.
Many times, I told dispatch to please keep the call "off the air" (yes, I know procedure), because whenever you'd call in for a boomcar noise violation, the perp would leave as soon as you call it in.
To me, that said someone knew....or that response time for such things is pitifully LONG.

Granted a noise violation is a bit different from say a home invasion or assault, but crime is STILL crime.
*** Next up, a story about how this frigid weather CAN actually HELP crime...as in DECREASE it.
Here's the link:
http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/Harsh-winter-takes-bite-out-of-crime-in-NW-Indiana/24377532
So, Gary, Indiana, often called the murder capital had ZERO homicides for the month of January...a-f$cking-mazing!
Here in Fort Wayne, we're ONE ahead of them so far.
But it takes Mother Nature (or Old Man Winter) to do the job that the Gary Police Department could not.
Certainly explains the lack of homicides HERE, too.
Still, given enough time, the thugs will be back at it soon enough. even they don't remain dormant for long.
But, you also have to understand that just because HOMICIDES  all but went away for the time being, doesn't mean that assaults, robberies, domestics, and other felonious events have NOT occurred.
*** Last back to the igloo today, if there is ONE lesson you can take away from this nasty-ass winter weather, it's that one must PERSEVERE.

And to that end, we need to stay on top of OUR game, even if others fail miserably, as has been demonstrated by city street crews in many parts of the Summit City.

We are far from being out of the woods just yet.
Take for example, this scenario...
When all this snow DOES decide to melt (and it will...just be patient...lol), it will ALL have to go SOMEPLACE, and that "could" mean some flooding, although the city has said it is much better prepared than it was back in March of 1982.
We can only hope.
When the snow melts, and temperatures rise, we WILL have RAIN instead of more snow.
That's a given, and only rubs salt into an open wound, as it were.
Local flood insurance just so happens to be in the news of late:
(how timely)
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140209/LOCAL/302099942/0/SEARCH
Yet, through all of this, plus the crime, and whatever other crap the FEDS have planned (so they can justify THEIR worthless jobs), it comes down to US...the "We, the people" aspect of our society to not shirk or avoid such things, but to work THROUGH them.
Advancing through adversity, as Charles Stanley once spoke about.

And to be able to persevere when things around you aren't all that great, says much to your character, your upbringing, your acquisition of knowledge and the wisdom in how best to apply such knowledge.
I am one of those cautious optimists - I hope for the BEST, but expect the worst...that way, I am rarely surprised.
And when that "worst" comes along, the best friend you can have is the ability to persevere.
Just like those in japan did when the Fukushima reactor had that accident...or the people in Joplin, Missouri.
Examples of perseverance are all around us to use as a guide for how best WE should proceed under similar circumstances. Something to think about, hmm?
DO have yourselves a good week.

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