Monday Musings - In Like A Lion...

NOT taken in our garden (damn).

Welcome to the month of MARCH, and I have to admit, that it HAS come in like the proverbial lion...
Just loved that snowfall we had between Saturday and Sunday...well, not really.
More about the recent snow event and other stuff in a minute, but before we go any farther, let's look at today's forecast.
Our Hoosierland weather will see us with rising temps into the UPPER TWENTIES...
(better not see anyone wearing shorts. either)
We'll have a mostly CLEAR day until later this afternoon when clouds roll back in and we get ready for the next "fun thing".
So, enjoy the sunshine (for what it's worth), and take it easy out there...we/re not out of the woods yet as far as winter is concerned.
Get that nice hot cup of your favorite drink beside you as we see what else is going on...
*** First out of the freezer is our salute to MARCH, and we've got a lot of things happening.

Irish American Month
Music in Our Schools Month
National Craft Month
National Frozen Food Month
National Irish American Heritage Month- designated by Congress in 1995.
National Nutrition Month
National Peanut Month
National Women's History Month
Red Cross Month
Social Workers Month
=====================
2nd Week National Bubble Week
2nd Week Crochet Week
March 1 - 
---Sunday was NATIONAL PIG DAY, and that doesn't HAVE to mean "hug a husband day"...lol.

They're cute when they're small.

(unless he leaves socks everywhere and never puts the seat down)
---It was also NATIONAL PEANUT BUTTER LOVER'S DAY...

Dogs+peanut butter=LOL.

I hope you had a PB and J for lunch.
March 2 - 
---Today is OLD STUFF DAY, and it might be time to check out some of YOUR old stuff.

Take a trip down memory lane, or perhaps choose to clean out a closet or basement.
Maybe watch some classic TV shows or movies...lots of old stuff to go around.
Moving on...
*** Next up...this latest snow event...
((rolls eyes))
Where to begin...

What...AGAIN???

Well, let's start with our streets NOT getting plowed as of this writing...snow's all nicely PACKED DOWN, and that creates less of an area for decent TRACTION, as was witnessed by me yesterday, as I watched SUVs spinning their tires, trying to turn corners.
Naturally, the schools had NO delay...so they must be laboring under the falsehood that all the streets are CLEAR.
You should try and navigate the residential areas down here....not even close.

Lemme clear the driveway
so I can block the sidewalk

And what people DID decide to shovel their vehicles out, chose (erroneously) to place the snow IN THE DAMN STREET.
Bad enough not getting plowed...and these effin idiots have to ADD to this?
Who the hell GROWS these people, anyway?
Plenty of room at the curbside to place the snow, but NOPE, that would make sense, wouldn't it?
And that's something these locals down here have in extremely SHORT supply.
Those that did manage to get out, also had this thing about cleaning OFF the vehicle. It's was the old "only do as little as possible", so most windows were snow-covered (that's what defrosters are for anyway).
Many of these residences have GARAGES, and they COULD put their vehicle IN THERE, but again, common sense to these idiots is more foreign than a full-time job.

Nope, no plow in sight...all damn day.

Believe it or else, yesterday would have been the PERFECT time to have the plows roll through...our block was CLEAR of any vehicles (no small task these days). It would have been a breeze to clear the street, but again...common sense took the day off at City Hall (what, another one?)
Going to be fun to see how well the USPS gets up the street, too.
Their small postal trucks aren't really off-road 4WD-ready, are they?
ALL this crap is precisely the type of story the media misses. I don't know if it's accidental or on purpose, but as long as they don't report anything about it, everyone else will (falsely) believe that everything's hunky-dory down here...which it hasn't been for years.
Now, with all these matters at-hand, and nothing being done about them...let's toss in those old yellow FWCS buses, trying to get down the streets that have NOT been plowed, and are again filled with cars whose drivers have NO inkling of what it means to PARALLEL PARK.
I hate to say this, but one GOOD accident might wake these morons the hell up.
Trying to get two-way traffic down these streets is difficult on a totally clear summer day
The streets are just NOT wide enough for that, and when you place parked cars on both sides...you have ONE lane - not two for traffic to flow.
One solution might be to make some of the streets ONE-WAY only, because attempting to WIDEN streets would encroach on property lines all over the place. Much of the congestion here is due to so many vehicles at every damn house. Some places have 4-5 cars parked out front.
Something just isn't right there...not when the house is a small bungalow.
The deal is, no one who can do something about this wants to listen, or if they do, it's brushed aside like some bothersome bug flying around your face.
You can't even email most of the people involved, and when you try to call them (as I did on Friday), you get King Henry with a pre-recorded message saying the department is attending training classes
"WTF"???
Training?
To answer a damn phone?
They've seemed well adept enough in the past to take my calls...
A few people will ask me why I keep banging my head against the wall (of the good old boy network in this city), and I answer:
"Because it feels SO damn good when I stop."
*** Next up, one of our former neighbors stopped by Friday afternoon...surprised the hell out of me. Was not expecting it.

Better and warmer days.

Thing is, he dropped by with some bad news - his wife passed away last month...around the same time Wifey's mom passed.
Now that's weird.
(but I'm kinda used to things being "weird" in this part of Ft. Wayne - seems to manifest itself daily, in fact)
We chatted for a spell, and I told him if there's anything we can do or whenever he wants to drop by if he's in the area, we have an open door and are here for him.
I have got to stop meeting friends like this...we need some "upbeat" stuff going on...somewhere...anywhere.
*** Last back to the igloo...I said we were being pulled in too many directions last week (and a few other times before that), and it doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon.

The most damning aspect to our current state is the fact that we, in general, do LESS for ourselves, and expect MORE to be done for us.
When did it become vogue to make this our life "plan"?
There always comes a sense of accomplishment and achievement whenever WE complete something.
Kinda worked well with our REVOLUTION, as I recall.
A completed task is much better than one half-finished, or not even begun.
Same can be said when it comes to home remodeling or car repair, right?
But today it appears that nobody wants to finish what they started, and I suppose that can be traced back to our "Whiner-in-Chief"...he exemplifies that.
What's worse, is that we don't even WANT to start anything that we COULD finish...that's a job for someone else.
Sorry, can't buy into that, and I think you feel the same.
Trying to convince those that NEED convincing, though...that's the HARD part.

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