Monday Musings...

Well, that was ONE nice dry day we had...and now, we're back into this "rain thing" all over again.
If anything, it's making lawn mower makers happy.
The REAL trick is trying to get the lawn DRY enough to mow...many don't figure that one out.
The rest of our Hoosierland weather has us with mostly cloudy skies, spotty rain through a majority of the day, and temps reaching into the mid-70s.
So, with that done, let's get ourselves a comforting morning drink as we see what's going on in some other places...
*** First out of the reservoir is our "What the hell happens today, Bob?" feature:
June 29 -
---Today is CAMERA DAY

Kinda miss the days of FILM and SLIDES.

With the weather we had this weekend, this cannot come too soon, can it?
The shutterbugs were out in numbers, if only to take pictures for INSURANCE CLAIMS.
---And, it's HUG HOLIDAY

I think they're trying to KEEP WARM...lol.

Puh-lease, spare me...Nuff said there, hmm?
---It's also WAFFLE IRON DAY

Gotta make those buggers SOMEHOW, right?

Well, since we have a waffle day, this would only make sense, don'cha think?
Moving on...
*** Okay, two things of note, aside from the shooting-capture of that second prison escapee in upstate NY, and the first one is a good one, considering it's one of my "pet peeves"...and that is the problem with FIREWORKS in our fair city.

Perfect for the "locals"...ROFL!

As you know, I'm all for the professional guys doing THEIR thing, and , for those living in RURAL areas, go knock yourselves out with aerials and the like, but when it comes to city STREETS, backyards, and people's pets, the amount of non-existent restraint for such things is, well...non-existent.
The lack of civility and respect for OTHERS is beyond belief, and we, down here on the SE side have had to put up with ALL the morons setting off some of those REALLY loud-ass rounds since the FOURTH OF JUNE, for God's sake.
Some people can't read a bloody calendar.
And not a single FWPD officer cruising the area to LOOK for the offenders...it'a ALL REACTIVE POLICING - you call, they drive through...that's it. And MAYBE it stops...for a while;
Now, if you got yesterday's J-G, and you happened upon the "Political Notebook" column, as I do, then you saw what I saw - a person from down here with a proper ax to grind.
Here is the column, reprinted verbatim:
((Fired up over fireworks codes
One Fort Wayne resident is unhappy with the city’s fireworks ordinance.
Speaking before the City Council on Tuesday, Mary Kay Matasky, a board member for the Pettit-Rudisill Neighborhood Association, offered suggestions on how the city could update the ordinance governing the use of fireworks by city residents.
The city code permits residents to use fireworks at specific times of the year – between 5 p.m. and two hours after sunset from June 29 to July 3, as well as between July 5 and July 9. Residents may also use fireworks between 10 a.m. and midnight on July Fourth, the day before Memorial Day, Memorial Day, the day before Labor Day and Labor Day.
Consumer fireworks are also allowed between 10 a.m. New Year’s Eve and 1 a.m. New Year’s Day.
“In our neighborhood, they have already started morning, noon and night,” she said, adding that she doesn’t think the city’s elected officials live in neighborhoods like hers.
“I believe they have sold out our neighborhoods for a pot of porridge – tax money.”
Matasky said she would like to see residential use of fireworks limited to July Fourth and New Year’s Eve between 5 p.m. and 1 a.m. She said she would also like to see a ban on fireworks that “fly into the air and can land on a neighbor’s property” and “excessively loud, military-type fireworks.”
“I take these off of my roof, my yard, my driveway and everywhere else,” she said.
The city code currently permits the use of what it calls aerial devices that include sky rockets, aerial spinners, Roman candles, mines and shells.
Ground audible devices such as firecrackers, salutes and chasers are also permitted.
Matasky would also like to see the city’s noise ordinance strictly enforced during the summer months and an increase in fines for people who violate the city’s fireworks ordinance.
The current city code states that violators “shall be fined not less than $150 nor more than $500 for each offense.”
“I respectfully ask you to consider this, because this noise is destroying our neighborhoods,” 
Matasky said. “Especially in the southeast part of the city.”))
Well now, imagine THAT...someone else who has had enough of all the stupidity running rampant around this time of year. I never heard of ANYONE being cited, either.
And, she happens to be on the board of our Neighborhood Association (which is a shadow of what a real one is).

And the "hits" keep coming.

I gotta hand her props for trying to get something done about this crap.
I mean, no one apparently listens to me (must be the wrong skin color).
I've said much the same for YEARS (now well over a decade), and the NOISE is perhaps the worst contributor to all the other bad shit that comes down our pike.
It's the FIRST of the "broken windows"...and it has not been "fixed" since WE moves here back in 1998.
Clearly, we can see the result of all the non-intervention BY the city, right?
I just might have to get in touch with Mary Kay Matasky, if only to see how her struggle progresses.
Personally, I'd love to see a CITY ban on such fireworks...with all the trees around, you don't need to set another fire, and setting them off in the damn streets is an impediment to anyone driving through, and a public safety issue to boot.
I don't see the "need" to have ALL these days where you set such annoying things the hell off (and the first OFFICIAL day of this "fun-fest" is TODAY).
Even if the law gets amended to JUST the holiday itself, that would be a good start, but the idiots around here NEVER follow any laws.
THAT is why such things as ENFORCEMENT are required, and you have to MEAN it, otherwise, the lawbreakers just laugh in your damn face (as they have been doing).
*** Next up, some stuff about all this wonderful "fallout" from the weekend storms...
We did manage to weather it well enough, compared to MANY other neighborhoods, at least around the "Fortress". Had a brief power-outage "fart" (as I call them) for a second.
The ONLY major problem is a large limb from a NEIGHBORING house that fell onto the sidewalk of their property, effectively BLOCKING it.

When you never trim trees around here, this is the result.

Good thing it fell in the direction it DID.
And those people REALLY keep to themselves...more than we do. I maybe see one of them once a week, tops.
So, the chance of that limb getting removed anytime soon is "iffy" at best., which I guess that means that "WE" will have to call the 3-1-1 line to downtown and see what can be done.
There are also branches down across the street, but those who cut the lawns there don't do a damn thing about that.
You have to admit that the level of APATHY around here is on par with the lack of respect and the level of neglect that the area "enjoys".
We can add this to the chronic parking control issues that never get resolved...and the party houses that never get shut down.
Other parts of the city didn't fare as well as we did, with flooding, trees being snapped like twigs, vehicles and houses damaged, and some trees being uprooted to the point where the entire sidewalk slabs were torn up.

OUCH - That's DEFINITELY gonna leave a mark!

Traffic signals were down in some parts, and over 20K people were without power over the weekend. I think they're down to under a couple thousand.
Yeah, the LAST thing you need is a major outage to ruin your food, kill your phones, and keep anything else from being recharged (like cell phones).

Yep, that USED to be a sidewalk.

Not to mention, should such an outage take place in a part of the city such as OURS, you're sleeping with your shotgun,
Criminals LOVE to take advantage of such events to apply their skills and burglarize an area.
I just thank God we made out as we did.
*** Next, since yesterday was a day to catch one's collective breath, I decided to clean out the gutters.

Yeah, gloves are a necessity...

Well, I got all but one done, because it's not easy work. And yes, it IS one DIRTY job.
Plus, I had to drag out the LONG wooden ladder from the garage to use, as the gutters are higher on the house than the garage, where a stepladder will suffice (and did).
Seemed like I musta got close to ten POUNDS of nasty crap out of those gutters, even with the guards in place.

Coulda used your help, Mike!

What happens, is that over the winter, the snow weighs down the guards, causing them to fall INTO the gutters, and then leaves get in and so one...
And, you ALWAYS wear gloves - those goofy-ass yellow dish-washing rubber gloves, for you WILL be up to your elbows in "schmutz", as you scoop it all out, and drop it to the ground (cheap fertilizer...lol).
Doing that for over an horu will get you aching in places you had long forgotten about, believe you me.
Of course, we're the ONLY people who do such "white" things in OUR part of the ghettohood...everyone else waits until all the accumulated crap tears down the gutters, then they bitch to the landlord, and, well...you know the rest.
Yeah, no one ever said that being a homeowner didn't have it's "perks".
Clogged gutters, loud car stereos, loud parties, illegal fireworks detonations to all hours, sirens every day, barking dogs...
Ahh, the GOOD LIFE, hmm?
*** Last back to the help desk...too many people these days are doing way too little, way too frequently (or is that INfrequently?).
Sure, there are still those oddballs like US, who do what is expected, or what we were brought up to do, mainly the right things at the right times.

But the increasing number of people content to sit on their duffs and let the world roll on by tells people like us that this is not the way a society moves forward.
Sooner or later, you run out of people who DO the things that need doing...and then what?
Used to be a time when people freely helped one another, simply because that's who they were.
And that worked out pretty damn well for everyone, with the rewards often being too numerous to mention.

These days, the lazy-asses among us are perfectly at ease with doing absolutely nothing - better to let "the next person" do whatever it is.
And it's NOT about "being poor", so don;t give me that line of BS.
Where the hell does THAT leave us, hmm?
And we wonder WHY entire neighborhoods fall into such decline?
And also wonder why it SPREADS like a disease to entire cities?

The lack of motivation is what drives such a bane across this country.
But, when you refuse to settle for LESS and demand more of yourself, things GET DONE,.,,it's that simple.
My parents used to drill into me the whole "jobs don't DO THEMSELVES" thing, and by God, they were right.
You LEARN that the hard way, sometimes.
Thing is, the people around HERE don't have that urge to explore such concepts, because they're too busy being "rewarded" for being the way they are...LAZY.
And those who DO bust their ass are paying for this mistake every...dam,...day.
You always have to go back to Ben Franklin when he said:
“I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
Yeah...that sounds about right.

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