Monday Musings...

Welcome to another week in Hoosierland, where the weather can be "testy" at times, and usually changes by the minute.
I trust all of you fared well with the storms that passed through yesterday, and that none of you suffered ill from the event.
Today's weather promises to be a LOT more user-friendly, with temps topping out on the mid-40s, breezy and mostly sunny.
We even have a nice sunrise staring back at us after last night's full moon.
So, let's settle back, fill up your cup with your morning beverage of choice, and take a look at what else has been going on...
*** First up today is the 2nd leaf pickup we were scheduled for down here in the crotch of Ft. Wayne.

This was BEFORE...

Saturday was the last day the city would be picking up leaves, so you just KNOW that we'd get a less than "stellar" job, as is always the case with damn near every department with the exception of solid waste.
I was not disappointed in my assessment of the situation.
The guys rolled into our neighborhood when Wifey and I were heading out to the grocery, and when we got back, I told the Lovely Mrs. Bobby G. just what I had told her earlier in the week...that we would get a sh*t job with the pickup...and we DID.

THIS...was AFTER.

The street looked worse than before they came...a real RUSH JOB...I guess the city figured that since most folks don't even give a damn, that whatever the city DOES do, is a godsend...not hardly.
Granted, all the leaf PILES were gone...for the most part, but you could tell it was not a thorough task that was performed.
You get used to this after a time...everyone else gets the gold mine...we get the shaft.
The good news is that yesterday's high winds made our property relatively "self-cleaning", if you catch my drift.
Moving on...
*** So after this event took place, Wifey headed to the mall to get her nails done, and I took to raking the leaves from the BACK yard (freshly mowed from last week), and while doing so, I noticed our back gate was OPEN...!

Yep, another "WTF???" moment for me to be sure.
The funny thing was that the LOCK was not touched and still on the gate...the "catch" that straddled the fence post had BEEN BENT out of whack.

Well, THAT ain't normal!

Now, I checked the fence for damage due to a vehicle backing INTO it  (takes an idiot to do that)...no damage.
So, my conclusion was that someone must have wailed the snot out of the gate to bend that steel catch...
And THAT never gives me a "warm and fuzzy" feeling in THIS part of the ghettohood.

And the lock has NOT been touched.

My choice was simple...FIX the thing ASAP...which I proceeded to do.
Had to take the U-shaped catch into the basement, after unbolting it from the gate, and then..it was...."Hammer Time"...LOL.

Now THAT looks better, Bob.

Since it's more than a 1/4 inch THICK, you have to REALLY "get into it", which, living down here with all this pent-up anger. works very well for ME.
That's why I have the shooting gallery downstairs...as a "release" for such things.
I managed to bend the catch BACK into a close approximation of it's former shape, and securely reattached it to the gate.
I also "added" something...I laced some BARBED WIRE along the top of the gate...as a "warning" to any future vandals.
And I do plan to add a length of thick- link forged CHAIN to the lock...as an extra measure.
Why YES, I do want to make it MORE difficult for anyone to get in, thanks for asking...LOL.
It's not like I have to string some empty cans with pebbles in them along a trip wire as a perimeter alarm though...right?
(you do THAT in theater...AND you're allowed to shoot anyone that breaches said perimeter)
*** Now, about that weather....
I come from the EAST coast (or, as we call it, the RIGHT coast) where tornado activity is pretty much unheard of, so even after 15 years in the Midwest, it's still kind of "new" to me...and a bit interesting.

We did NOT see anything like THIS.

This isn't to say I wish to ever be in the middle of any of such crap...no sir!
I DO like to be prepared for the worst...(blame the boy scouts for that).
Since we had a new fence put up and then had a new roof put on the house, there's no need to deal with leaks or shedding shingles.

Fence-damage- Huntington

We don't have to contend with a downed fence either.
And, since we had any and all branches that posed a problem REMOVED, the chance of damage from THEM has been all but eliminated.

Still, wind IS wind, and weather is weather out here in Hoosierland, and you don't fear any of it as much as you have a deep RESPECT for it.
Thing is, around here, people are not living in the state of Indiana, but rather in two OTHER states; that of DENIAL and APATHY.
Some live in both.
That translates to not doing anything to prep for bad weather, not trimming trees back to prevent future damage, and not even raking leaves.
But again, you DO get used to this...just as much as you do with the city's ignorance.
And I would take a older house over a newer one any day, considering the materials that go into the building back then as opposed to now (unless I was designing the thing).
*** Lastly today, this Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of (then) President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, and there have been such a plethora of programs to extol that event.

I was in 6th grade when it came over the school's PA system (yes, we had such things back THEN...lol), and it was one of those "screeching-stop" moments...everything seemed to halt in it's tracks.
Since that horrible event, I've been reading up on various aspects to the shooting, and that includes the conspiracy theories.
While it has not become and all-consuming passion, it is something I revisit from time to time...for a fresh perspective.

Mark Lane was one of the first authors I read about the JFK shooting in a book called RUSH TO JUDGMENT  (excellent read).
Read THAT one in high school!
I also read WHITEWASH (I and II) by Harold Weisberg (the report ON the Warren Commission Report - all 26 volumes), and these are also good reads.
Again, I read these in high school, so you know they've been out for a while.

I also have the book HIGH TREASON by Croden and Livingstone (another VERY good read)
But, I saw a presentation on the REELZ channel this weekend that totally FLOORED me (and that don't come easy these days, folks)
A former Aussie detective, Colin McLaren proposes a totally new aspect to what happened back on 22 November 1963.
In a book entitled THE SMOKING GUN, McLaren postulates that there was a SECOND shooter, but it's not who you might think.

Colin McLaren

I've been fascinated by the BALLISTIC evidence connected with the shooting, and that's the point that McLaren approaches this from.
Not to mention that SO MUCH evidence was not included in the Warren Commission Report (but that's another post for another day), especially during the autopsy of JFK.
The second shooter is believed to have been a Secret Service Agent travelling in a car behind the President's convertible, and that the shot was completely ACCIDENTAL in nature.
THIS shot was the fatal head shot, and much of the evidence that McLaren produces makes a very STRONG case for such an act.

I prefer to call it FATE - that situation in which all these little parameters line up and occur at the same moment to produce a specific effect.
The Titanic sinking could also be called an act of FATE...you take ONE parameter out of that "equation" and the ship would have NEVER sunk.
Ditto for Kennedy...take just one parameter away, and he would have survived the shooting by Oswald.
McLaren's insight does shed new light on something the government was keen to cover up.
All this week, I'll be taking a look at various ways this killing back then still affects us NOW, and how our curiosity will never let it go away.
I think that whatever truth is still out there needs to be found, and to explore every possibility in search of that truth is what keeps us coming back to that fateful day in 1963.

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