Monday Musings...

It's a more seasonal start to this week, and one which will probably find most of us having the furnace kick on.
Love that smell you get the first time you fire it up after months of inactivity, but that's part of the game.
We're looking at a mostly sunny day with a high of around 67 degrees, and no rain happening today.
Still, you're going to need a sweater or light jacket this morning as we're in the upper 40s.
So, what say we get ourselves a nice hot cup of coffee, tea, or cocoa made as we see what has been going on elsewhere, okay?
*** First out of the cereal box is our "What the hell happens today, Bob? feature:
OCTOBER 10 -
---It's NATIONAL ANGEL FOOD CAKE DAY

(I like it, but I prefer devil's food cake for some reason)
---It's also NATIONAL HANDBAG DAY

(I don't even have a "man-purse"...lol)
---It's NATIONAL ONLINE BANK DAY

(no thanks...there's enough problems with brick and mortar one)
---It's NATIONAL KICK BUTT DAY

(please, do not get me started there)
---It's NATIVE AMERICAN DAY

(We are talking AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES here, and not everyone else born here)
---And, it's COLUMBUS DAY
(which has nothing to do with "Columbo", or actually discovering AMERICA itself)
There you...have at it.
I also want to welcome aboard a new "follower" - Doc Farmer (one of the voices of reason who regularly posts on Disqus). Hope this humble blog enlightens and amuses..
*** Next up, we are up to THIRTY-NINE HOMICIDES in the Summit City for this year.

Here's the story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/police-fire/Man-with-knife-killed-by-police-15683990

This took place at the Hallmark Inn, located at 3730 E. Washington Blvd, around 2050 hrs Saturday night.
A knife-wielding man, who, when confronted by police, as told to drop the weapon, when he refused and came at the officer, was shot and fell. The officer tried to administer first aid, but when emergency medical personnel arrived, they pronounced the man dead.

And, let's just say that the Hallmark doesn't quite live up to it's name, and not because of this shooting.
Patrons there have to deal with other issues that are mentioned in the story.
*** Next, and this is a story that will cause you some laughter. Here's the details:
http://www.journalgazette.net/business/Grocery-bills-declining-15487109

So, grocery bills are going DOWN?
Gee, I didn't know I was recently installed as Master of the Universe, either.
Tell me another fairy tale, folks.
If anything, prices are static at best, but I've seen no real decrease in years at the grocery.
I've said here before a while back that what Wifey and I used to pay about $60 for, w're now creeping up into the $80 dollar range weekly.

Lemme see...buy HALF as much???

Now, to me, that's not a decrease. And this is for mainly the staples. If we decide to splurge with a few items, the bill can easily rise into the $90 range.
Rare are the weeks when we can get into the $60-$70 range, but once in a while, we can nail it (thanks to store coupons), but it's never every week any longer.
*** Next,  there is this small parcel of land at the corner of Lafayette and Pettit (NE corner) that has sat vacant for years.

Now, the city comes along and decides to put a mini-park in there. Here's the story:
http://www.news-sentinel.com/news/local/-Unkempt--southeast-side-corner-gets-makeover--stability-after-years-of-change
This kinda shit cracks me the hell up.
We need RETAIL down here, but that's gonna happen until the CRIME is booted the hell outta this part of town, so WHY do we "need" some small park there?
Talk about your misplaced priorities down here.
The other corners have little value to add to this park. The Walgreens that USED to be across the street is vacant. There was a tire and cell phone place on another corner...both also gone, and the one house at the corner used to be a nice-looking place, but, with damn near everything else down here, has not been kept as nice as it used to be when responsible people owned it.
(but remember, we still have a NICE downtown and potential riverfront)
*** Next, a prime example of why our part of town has devolved over the years.
We have children in our area, which used to always be a good thing - people were raising families, and such.
Nowadays, no one seems to be "raising" them...just HAVING them, and when they're old enough, turn them loose upon the streets.
Thing is, we also have speeders in abundance; something we didn't USED to have.
We also have curbside drug deals, dogs NOT on a leash, litter tossed about daily, cars with loudass stereos blasting to all hours, and the like (must be a "cultural thang").

And, we do have rec centers (and a few normal parks close by) where kids CAN play football of basketball.
Sorry, not good enough...better to play in the damn streets, and especially in the INTERSECTION.

This gets real tedious real fast to me. Someone's gonna get nailed by a hit-skip sooner or later, and a bleeding child tends to spoil my appetite on a Sunday afternoon.
So, I do the responsible thing...I call the FWPD and tell them about this and my concern for the kids.

Not too much later, an officer arrives and tells them to stay out of the streets (something a responsible PARENT would and should be doing).
About an hour later, they were back in the street, but luckily not for long.
And some wonder WHY black people might get shot by police?
How about NOT FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS...or LAWS?
Is that a good enough reason?
They create their OWN problems (as do we all from time to time), and then THEY bitch a fit when someone ELSE holds them to the letter of the law...something they need to be doing by themselves...FOR themselves. It's that damn entitlement mindset.
*** Next, and speaking of irresponsible people, we've TWO street lights that have not functioned for close to SIX months, and you might ask why I didn't do anything about it?

One of our street lights that DOES works.

Well, call it an "experiment", of sorts. I wanted to see if ANYONE ELSE gave a damn.
(they don't)
So, last week, I got tired of our block looking DARKER than it usually looks (especially at night), and called the city's 3-1-1 number to report the outages. Long story short, this is the FIRST weekend in all that time, where we once again had PROPER street lighting. Nice to know the city is good for something, rather than good for nothing...lol.

Now, every time I go outside, I say "You're welcome, morons", to no one in particular. I feel it's owed me.
*** Next up, another page of "The Hobo Chronicles"...

"Is that a bird in the tree?"

It was a fun weekend for our furry friend...plenty of time to no absolutely nothing, when not roaming about and chasing squirrels that are always faster than the cat, thank God.

"Look at that, I'm out front now."

When Hobo gets into "stalking-mode", nothing deters him, and off he goes, only to come back soon afterward with nothing to show for his endeavors but acting tired.

"Hey, that lap was available..."

You just have to love the personality that every animal seems to have. Makes a nice diversion from the typical fare of what passes for humanity in our part of the ghettohood.

"Oh, if you could see my dreams..."

Still, when it comes to personality, it's a cat thing with Hobo.
*** Last back to the kitchen...when did people stop caring, and why has this become such a condition as to warrant intervention by others?

Some of us still do.

Well now, that's the real "$64,000 Dollar Question", isn't it?
We could look at the BLM movement as one of the most recent "participants" in this comedy of stupidity, and see how, through social media, they ENCOURAGED people to loot in the wake of hurricane Matthew. Google it.
I would view this as just a means to achieve an end, and that end being getting something for nothing.
That is the crux of the matter, and there is never such a "free ride" in this life.
At least, there SHOULDN'T be, but thanks to big government, and all the stupidity found therein, we're up to our hips in such nonsense.
It's proven that when people have things done FOR them, they get real comfortable real fast with that.
And, it's the kind of trap that can start ever so innocently.

Big time, too.

History is a good teacher here. Johnson's "Great Society" (to end poverty) is a prime example.
How's that been working out for us over the near fifty years it's been in place?
We've got just as many, if not more poor folks as we did before this was instituted.
Where's all that money been going anyway?
From where I sit, it's only produced people with a need to be taken care of by any means possible.
They just want to sit around, and watch the world go by as they do whatever the hell they please, and usually on the taxpayer's dime.
Not a good way to evolve a society, is it?
It never was, and never will be.

It's the whole hand-OUT versus hand-UP gig, and the hand-OUTS are winning.
The bad thing about such communistic tendencies...sooner or later you WILL run out of other peoples' money.
Let's hope it never comes anywhere close to that, right?

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