Humpday Happenings...

And it looks to be another wintry day in the Heartland, with off and on snow showers (with no accumulation), and temps barely making it above freezing.
Well, that should set the tone nicely for all the stuff that's been going on since last we met.
And we'll take care of THAT in just a moment, but first, we have our Motto of the Week aka WHO SAID THAT?
"To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail."
This is one for all you home bound "weekend warriors" - the fixer-uppers out there.
And there is some wonderfully allegorical aspects to this one, not the least of which could be considered political in nature..
So...who said it?
The answer at the top of tomorrow's post.
Meanwhile, back at the tool shed...
*** I hear the FWHA (local housing authority) is taking it on the chin with cutbacks...oh, Boo-F$cking-Hoo!

Section 8ers might be let go of the assistance program, as long as they're able-bodied and single (chronically-pregnant baby-mamas with drug dealing boyfriends of the month need not apply, right?).
Here's the story link:
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/sequester-cuts-threaten-thousands-with-homelessness
Personally, HUD has no business existing (imho).
Whatever happened to helping ONESELF...as in PERSONAL assistance?
God always helps those that help themselves, and this nation was built upon the backs of people who DID NOT sit back with their hands out, but rather by folks with a strict sense of "self", and that meant THEY made their OWN way in life.

Most ALL public housing is already ripe with crime and slothfulness, posing as a feigned sense of "poverty".
I've seen it back in Philly, and such things do NOT vary from state to state.
It's a weird-ass form of what Christ spoke about when he made the distinction between GIVING a man a fish and TEACHING him to fish.

We, as a society need to stop GIVING away the damn farm, and teach people to (once again) become SELF-RELIANT.
That ALONE will instill much more self-esteem than ANY giveaway program the gov't could dream up, and when people feel better about themselves BECAUSE of what they CAN accomplish, they can change the world, and always for the better.
I say just defund HUD and all it's parts...cut off ALL the heads of this money-sucking "Hydra" and reap the benefits of a better people.
That alone should go a long way to balancing the nation's budget and reducing the deficit.
Moving on...
*** The city of Ft. Wayne has some looming budget "issues"...do tell.
Here's the story link:
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/city-controller-unveils-some-options-availble-to-help-with-looming-budget-issues-mre

Naturally, we're hearing that the state's TAX CAP is to blame (typical liberal tactic - point fingers) for a $53 million dollar shortfall in revenue in our city.
(yeah, and I'm the next Pope!)
Let's say (factually) that the state property tax cap was put in place so that our properties would not be artificially INFLATED.
And let's also say it was because we had 30+ entities with their fingers in the property tax pie, as it were...

We raise the property VALUE (arbitrarily) so the city can garner HIGHER rates with NO ceiling...vis-a-vis a 5% hike...or even a 7% hike, rather than the 3% "cap" the state initiated.

Speaking from experience here, I really have NO dog in this hunt, as OUR property values have DECLINED over the last 8 years, to where we now pay a TOTAL yearly cost of LESS THAN $100 for property taxes (ghetto life DOES have at least ONE benefi, aside from a "target-rich" environment...LOL)...on a property that USED to fork over between $600-700 PER YEAR.

THAT is where your LOSS is coming from...DEVALUED properties...and in the most densely populated area of the city, which SHOULD mean some of the highest revenue retrieval, right?

Thanks to Section 8 and HUD takeovers of property for the rental crowd (and the transient flotsam that inhabit and totally trash once nice houses) the result is painfully clear. That's why the annexation of Aboite...to shore up that tax BASE the city allowed to slip through their greedy little fingers..
If the city RECLAIMED these houses, and put DECENT working class people (back) IN them, instead of the baby-mama-drug using/dealing crowd, you would HAVE the revenue you've lost over the past 15-20 years...it's THAT f$cking simple, people.
Hey, you can jack up OUR property taxes 100%, and we won't bat a damn eye here, so do your worst.
But it's only another band-aid on a compound fracture...and the city will find THAT out soon enough...you watch.
*** Now, about flash floods in OUR part of Hoosierland...ah, yes.

Yesterday, I went down to the basement and I found that ALL our rugs were sopping wet. I mean WTF???
Well, the sewer didn't back up (thankfully), as we never flush gross amounts of street pharms down there when the po-po drives by...we don't do THAT kind of stash anyway.
Seems the drain in the basement floor has a cover to the sewer, and it rusted over, blocking it nicely, and when the snow melted, the water around the house that USUALLY drains into the sewer drained into the basement (had this happen once before and thought it was fixed).
Suffice it to say that WET carpets are a royal pain the back to move, and I wrenched something in MY lower back to prove it.
Haven't felt THAT kind of pain since I fell through a ceiling and whacked my lower spine...talk about a technicolor rainbow of bruising.
I have to confess that it damn near brought ME to tears...which means that a lot of other people would be on the ground, writhing in agony.

I just tough through it...tolerance of such things comes with time and experience...not that it make it any LESS PAINFUL.
You just grunt a lot, clench your teeth and work THROUGH it
Last night was a bad night to get sleep, that was certain.
Today, the pain is a lot more dull, but I have to move carefully, if I want to avoid those sharp stabbing pains.
Be back to normal in a few days...well, as normal as I can be at my age with my disposition...LOL
The worst part of this flood, was that a box of my TV and movie tie-in paperbacks got trashed...helluva loss to me.
Been collecting them since the late 1960s, too.
Many of my first edition, fist issues got water-logged, and their fate has yet to be determined.

My Captain America novel by Ted White (The Great Gold Steal) from 1968 is soaked, as was my Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker novel from 1967.
Gonna be damn hard to replace either of those. They are (or were) worth something...out of print, you see.

But I DID secure another (1972) copy of my Kenneth Robeson novel The Avenger #1 - Justice Inc., and for UNDER $10 bucks!
Hey, it's a start.
And my G.I. Joe vehicle boxes got really wet, but at least the figures and vehicles themselves were dry - I tend to bag things a lot...blame it on mild OCD...and survival instincts (during monsoon seasons).
Wifey had some Mary Kay merchandise soaked, but not that much.
And her beanie babies were high and dry, too.
The carpets have been drying with the help of a box fan (along with the ambient heat from the furnace) and the floor was mopped dry.

I don't think we'll have any mold issues. I also addressed the drain problem, and I believe I fixed that once and for all...again.

So, the lesson I learned HERE is whenever you have to put cardboard boxes on the floor in the basement (in Indiana)...DON'T!

I've been meaning to get everything off the floor for a while...and you can only roll fate's dice SO many times, before they come up SNAKE-EYES, and you crap out.
So that means a visit to MENARDS this weekend.

Resin shelving is on sale and we're getting enough to get damn near everything that is perishable OFF the floor permanently.
And never fear, all my COMICS (from the 60s) were bagged and in boxes already ON SHELVES, and off the floor by several FEET for some time.

See...it can ALWAYS be worse.
(now THAT'S a flood!)
Lesson learned the HARD way here...most definitely.
And we get to consolidate items and toss out a few trashed boxes...a win-win...sorta-kinda.
Still gonna miss those books, though, but that's my own fault.
NEVER underestimate the ability of Indiana to screw with you...or God finding a way to get your attention to things that should have been done, but were not.
I got the hint...finally.
To add insuklt to injury, later in the afternoon, our Internet and phones went OUT...and after a call into Frontier, (and me rebooting all the in house items from Frontier) the problem was resolved.
They say BAD THINGS COME IN THREES...we had ours.
The screen chew-through, the small flood and the Internet crash...we SHOULD be done with this crap for now, hmm?
*** Lastly today...it takes some sort of tragedy to give us that wake up call in life.

And while MY personal loss here pales with so many others, a loss is STILL...a loss.
It's a part of my life...my past...and helped define who I was and who I have become.
It's like losing a family pet in some ways...you grow accustomed to having them around.
Nothing wrong with familiarity...(like absence) it usually makes the heart grow fonder, as the saying goes.
It also breeds contempt.
I like the familiar...that which I remember with fondness.
I'm not one for change, especially when it's for "change sake" alone.

There HAS to be PURPOSE behind change, otherwise it means little if nothing for all of us.
There needs to be REASON for change, and not because of technologies we can use to defame others, or having the means to create chaos.
We should still hold fast to those things in our lives that mean something, and not dismiss them for whatever comes down the pike tomorrow.
Such thinking is already leading us to places we need not go.

It's all about knowing your past, learning from it and taking THAT knowledge and wisdom into THIS day and every one to follow.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...

Stay SAFE out there, America.