4th:  Well, knock on wood, we've had less than 1/4 inch of snow since the snow season began last Fall.  Wouldn't bother me to see none for the rest of this year, either.

5th:  The garbage is piling up against the garage across the alley, onceagain.  Have yet to remember to call it in but it's obvious the garbage trucks that have passed it the past couple weeks haven't either - they being paid presumably to collect garbage.

5th:  Time Warner has yet to provide any of the first two months free service they promised when I bought Roadrunner Internet Service from them on November 6th.  I even jumped through their hoop of having to fill-out and mail a coupon post card for one month's free service a month ago.  Their latest billing received today doesn't reflect a credit.  I'm sure they're going to say they haven't received the coupon in the mail, if I can ever get through to the local telephone number that's been busy all morning.

8th:  Time Warner's local phone lines were busy all day Monday - probably with callers like me inquiring about their coupons.  Got through today and discovered that they had a big backlog of coupon entries but had credited my account as of the 5th - the day I received the invoice -- meaning I could ignore this bill.  I mailed my 2nd and final coupon today.

And finally, the growing pile of trash across the alley was picked up by DPW.  Given that the building is still being worked on, the pile will probably be back in a few days.
13th:  The pile of trash has been replaced with a pile of branches.  Don't know why they didn't just chop down the several wild trees growing into and destroying the alley fencing.

16th:  Got our first measurable snowfall since last year around this time.

31st:  Got our second measurable snowfall of the year.  Shoveled once early this morning and again around 10:00 am.  It's already melting.  Now, that's the kind of snow storm I like!

7th:  Repair work began today on the fire damaged house across the alley.  The fire damaged car has been tagged for removal.  Given that the city now makes money off the scrap value of these abandoned vehicles, it'll probably be removed by the end of the month.
15th:  My tenant's car parked across the street last night (on the correct side for that even numbered night) had most of its windows broken - presumably by someone wielding a baseball bat -- maybe an irate ex-husband/boyfriend --- will have to keep on the lookout out for possible domestic violence attacks related to anger over newly issued restraining orders.

16th:  According to the sister of the tenant who witnessed it all from her upper flat, two carloads of girls came by after 2:00 am, with one getting out to beat on the car.  The police came and took statements but without a license plate number probably won't do much else.  The owner of the car appears to have been a victim of mistaken identity - a similar car, owned by a male, should have been the target of a spurned or extremely angry girlfriend -- needless to say, that car wasn't on the block at the time.
[ Another case of mistaken identify may have occurred on our block the evening of June 12th. ]

Today's mail also brought this year's home insurance renewal from Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Boston, Mass.  As anticipated by the shenanigans played out last year about "re-appraising" my home (THE 'OVER THE PHONE' APPRAISER NEVER HEARD OF A DUPLEX), this year's premium has increased 400% from $211 to $846.  Last year's increase was 12% from $188 to $211.  Here's a comparison of the specific changes:


                                                                      2002     2001
                                                                   -------   ------
 I: Coverage A - Your dwelling with expanded replacement cost     $336,700 $ 76,800
    Coverage B - Other structures on residence premises             33,670    7,680
    Coverage C - Personal property with replacement cost           252,525   57,600
    Coverage D - Loss of use of your residence premises        ACTUAL LOSS SUSTAINED
 II:Coverage E - Personal liability (each occurrence)              300,000  300,000
    Coverage F - Medical payments to others (each person)            1,000    1,000
 Deductible: Losses covered under Section I                            500      500

 Premium: H0 00 03 04 91 Base cost for coverage and limits above    1,046      217
          H0 04 53 04 91 Credit card, forg. & phony money ($1,000)       0        0
          FMHO-1199      Homeprotector plus                            105       22
    Coverages extended - E increased limit                               9        9
    Preferred risk rating plan discounts
      6.0% Insurance to value credit                                  - 63     - 15
      3.0% Inflation protection credit                                - 31     -  7
      2.0% Smoke detector & 4.0% Fire extinguishers & dead bolt       - 63     - 15
    Safe homeowner program                                            -157      n/a
 Net Premium - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  $    846      211
Needless to say, I'll be looking for another insurance provider.  I doubt if there's been a house built within a mile of me over the past 20 years that's cost more than $150,000 - let alone $336,700!!  The $33,670 for the garage (Coverage B) would buy the duplex across the street from me!  And, don't I wish I had anything near $57,600 worth of personal property, even at replacement cost, let alone $252,525 worth.  (Note that even though medical expenses have been increasing at double digits for the past couple decades, it stays the same at Liberty Mutual.)

17th:  Apparently, Liberty Mutual's exposure to the 911 disaster is from $286 to 429 million.  That same web site shows that Allstate and State Farm didn't get hit so badly.  Good to know when looking for alternatives who aren't also gouging their customers in order to pay for their overexposure. 2nd:  Got our second major snowfall of the year.  Shoveled once this morning during the lull between storms.  The fresh snow melted until it cooled off early-afternoon - am about to go out right now at around 6:00 pm to shovel, again.  Will probably have to shovel the 3rd time tomorrow morning.

Signed up with my second commission garnering web service.  The C2IT/AOL QuickCash site, accessed by clicking the image of same, is where one goes to open an online money holding account - sort of like a generic bank account.  I earn $5.00 for each person who clicks one of those images on my site(s) and signs up for the service.  (Dropped it by September - not enough traffic to warrant having it slow down site access while online.)

4th:  Ordered the annual dumpster for our block.  DPW woman indicated one could be dropped on Cinco de Mayo.  She probably meant Friday, May 3rd.  I'll know when I get the confirmation letter a week before it's dropped.

5th:  The Better Way Group Home next door hasn't shoveled their sidewalk, again.  Their idea of a "better way", apparently, is to disrespect everyone around them all the time.  It's amazing how our governmental bodies keep throwing money at organizations like this with the belief that they're going to solve problems rather than exacerbate them.

Haven't received any callbacks, emails or other acknowledgements of my contacts with Allstate or American Family Insurance.  State Farm gave me a quick estimate that's double what I paid last year - it would go higher when they try to set the replacement cost for my home at a couple hundred thousand instead of the $75,000.00 maximum it would really take to replace it.

Liberty Mutual sent a form letter which allowed me to make changes to the renewal notice - like $75k versus $337k for replacement value but haven't received a "revised" billing from them and don't expect to.  My experience in the Inner City has been that Insurance companies NEVER LOWER the amount of a billing on their own.

8th:  Well, the temperature got up into the low 50s today.  If this keeps up that winter long growth of facial hair is going to be gone - as well as what little hair is managing to escape from my thick skull -- it all went 3 days later on the morning of the 11th.

and Wisdom Found this great site via the Cult Forum.  It's now linked from livemylife.com, too!

20th:  Had another shooting in the neighborhood last night.  The body of a 15 year old boy was found in   around 7:00 am this morning.  The body was dumped there - the actual shooting took place in one of the houses on 38th street just north of the park.

26th:  Had the periodic meeting of Block Captains in the 3rd District (MPD) tonight at the Boys & Girls Club at 34th and North.  The new Captain for District 3 gave us a presentation for an hour.  Suffice it to say that the control of crimes and misdemeanors in our area will be more up to us than the police - the problem being that the police are still in the mode of responding only to serious crimes -- meaning "after" something like a shooting, robbery, assault or burglary has happened, not before when it's merely a car without license plates, public drinking, loitering or 100s of other ways the same criminals break the law every day of their lives.  [ This 3rd District Captain was removed just before Christmas 2003 over his 'overtly' aggressive policies.  And, contrary to what I had initially written here, he was going after the 'thugs' who were breaking every law on the books - a policy I've been promoting for more than a dozen years. ]
  1st:  Must have had some sort of dust-up at the group home last night.  On returning from Easter dinner at Pat's, the northernmost side railing of their front porch was hanging out over the side yard.  The home has young boys instead of girls staying there, now.  8/21/05update:  The Group Home had lost their license and was now operating as an illegal child care facility where there was no owner occupant living on site. ]

13th:  Well, it was a beautiful day.  The sun was out and kids were playing up and down the block.  Fearah, Robin, Precious and Mike negotiated with me to clean the gutters with shovels and brooms from the corner to the 9th house on the east side of the street and to the 6th on the west side.  In return, I walked up to Jewel-Osco and bought a big pail of Neapolitan ice cream and cones so we could all sit out front eating as many cones as fast as we could before the ice cream melted.

23rd:  Well, today, while mowing the lawn for the first time this year, a rubber ball was kicked through one of the windows of the front porch.  A social worker had brought a ¿5 year old? boy to the group home next door, but there was no one there to receive him; so, he was kicking a ball around inside their fenced front yard and somehow, even with adult supervision watching, managed to kick the ball hard enough and high enough to go through the window.  I got a dust pan and foxtail for them to pick up the glass, obtained the social worker's business card and secured the ball until after the window is fixed.  The group home supervisor agreed to call 'the glass place' to get it fixed.  In the meantime, I created a brace to secure the empty hole while avoiding the need to put holes into the woodwork of the screened-in front porch.  [ The boy denied responsibility for breaking the window the whole time - a habit undoubtedly enabled by parents or guardians having raised and trained him to be so irresponsible in less than 5 years -- now, they've apparently given up on him and placed him in the care of others.  Until I secured the ball, he was going to suffer no consequences for his action.  This may have been the first time in his young life that he's suffered any consequences for dysfunctional behavior.  He didn't appear to be physically abused - psychological abuse from being 'responsibility training' deprived most of his young life may be his affliction. ]  (He got the ball back May 21st - when the window was fixed.)

25th:  Here's a picture showing why we are one of the highest taxed cities and states in the country.  Two very expensive vehicles and "highly paid" unionized crews for one "routine" emergency!  [ Click here to see another visit by two trucks on the night of 1/5/03. ]

4th:  While Mike was building his air-rope-ics playground with the fenceless fence posts across the street (that fence had been newly installed less than three years ago - both flats of the house are empty, again -- the owner seemingly unable to supervise or rent the property), he asked if I had "broken down the playground" at the school a couple blocks away.  I responded that, "I had helped build it!  Why would I want to tear it down?!"  Well, on the way to the 38th Street School playground with my digital camera to get pictures of what I feared was vandalism, it dawned on me - Mike was probably talking about the "old" playground -- the one that was much sturdier than the new one and had riding, heavy duty, spring loaded horses, monkey bars and a bigger metal slide.  The one the kids really loved but which someone, apparently, deemed to dangerous for "inner city" kids - kids who have to dodge bullets every day, but who can't be allowed to play on heavy metal playground equipment.  [ I was moving my second security camera from its 8 year long location in the basement window to a much better position just under the rear porch.  Given that it has sound, too, the garbage and recycling trucks announce themselves when in the alley - and I can tell which one is there without leaving my computer. ]
    Sure enough, it was the old one, now gone to make room for a sitting park.

12th:  Tom was in town for Mother's Day, so we took mother on a tour of our previous homes in Whitefish Bay and down to the new Calatrava addition to the Art Museum.

13th:  Learned a new word, today.  Welaba, pronounced way-la-ba, means goodbye in lugana - the language of Uganda.  Got that from the cable installer who immigrated here with his family at the age of 4.  I had tried to switch from RoadRunner to Earthlink in order to take advantage of their offer and save $8.00 per month - but, the installation disk required by Earthlink was not only a real pain in the ass, it asked questions I didn't know the answers to and wanted to repeat the process all over again at the end of the first attempt - including the name, address and other data.  Decided that Earthlink, with such an unfriendly installation process, would just be more problems I don't need, so RoadRunner it is for a while, yet.

21st:  Today is a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  My front porch window was repaired at the same time that the railing on the front porch of the group home next door was nailed back into place.  Got to wear shorts, again, and the sun was out all day long. 6th:  On a beautiful sunny afternoon, Precious, Mike and Robin negotiated another street cleaning in trade for ice cream cones.  Shantiece, from across the street, joined us after I brought out the brooms and shovels.  We filled two garbage carts with tree seedlings, litter and lawn dirt and then went to Jewel-Osco to buy $9.00 worth of ice cream cones, fudge bars and popsicles.

8th:  The house that had the big garage fire last September 30th finally got the siding replaced.  It's vinyl added onto aluminum - the difference can be seen by the wavy white section under the upper window to the left -- that waviness only reflected in the picture --- it's not noticed with the naked eye.  The aluminum siding had been stolen when the duplex was vacant a few years ago.

10th:  Had a couple cloudbursts come through.  The storm sewer backed up onto the street.  I called DPW and Alderman Hines' office.  [ The sludge clogged drain has not been cleaned out as of June 13th. ]

13th:  Last night, a little after 9:00 p.m., someone fired a 45 caliber slug through the front door and into the stairway of the upper flat two houses south of mine.  A witness said a ?yellow? Camray had stopped in front of the house with the driver standing up outside the car to look at the address.  Another person was in the passenger seat.  The actual firing of the gun was not witnessed.  The police interviewed residents and spent several hours on the block looking for the shell casing and other evidence.  It's probably another case of mistaken identity - some moron firing into the wrong house on the wrong block in the wrong neighborhood.

14th:  Apparently, the new batch of juvenile delinquents staying in the Better Way Group Home next door demolished the giraffe and elephant paper mache statues that had been placed on the front lawn last week.  What's left of them is shown in the picture taken of the back yard mess next to the garbage carts.

28th:  Well, Mike came by while I was sitting out front reading this week's Milwaukee Community Journal.  He had a 4 inch boomerang shaped scar just below the elbow on the inside of his left arm.  We compared scars - both of ours about the same size on the inside of the left arm.  His was obtained this last Sunday while visiting his Auntie.  There was an apartment building with a 4 foot rusty old fence next door.  The prongs were intentionally turned up to hurt people when they attempted to climb the fence - a successful strategy in the case of 5 year old Michael.  His dad and little brother came by later but no one, apparently, is contacting a lawyer regarding the landlord's blatant disregard for the safety of children - a sad fact of life that makes these kinds of things all that much more prevalent in the inner city.

1st:  Took pictures of the kids from up the block - each child taking a turn with the digital camera.  Pictured are Mike, Ben, Joseph, Joshua, Jeannette, Precious, ?Felicia?, Lil Lana and ??.  (I forget the names too quickly when I don't write them down right away.  Most of these kids moved away from the block in August, anyway - having lived here for less than 6 months.)

3rd:  Spent the 3rd through the 5th up in St. Paul visiting old friends from Albuquerque.  St. Paul is half the size of Milwaukee but seems to have twice the brains - their progress along racial and economic relations far surpassing our meager abilities and efforts.

8th:  Noticed a fresh "thrown egg" stain on the north side of my house last night.  It undoubtedly came from the kids who were grounded inside the group home for throwing dirt and other stuff at my house while playing in the side yard.  I heard the pebbles thrown by one new little girl resident last week and notified the supervisor (who wasn't supervising the outside activities of the children) immediately.  The other picture shows the "Ki-Ki" graffiti drawn on the aluminum siding two panels down between the two bedroom windows.  That vandalism was done some time last year when the older teen girls stayed in the group home.

Also noticed someone moving into the lower flat two houses away - the home where a couple of the street cleaning helpers had lived -- they'd lived there since 1998.  Too bad - they helped make the block a little more decent -- here's hoping the new tenants are NOT another dysfunctional family bringing grief and pandemonium onto our block.

9th:  Today's mail brought a notice from the Dept. of Neighborhood Services (formerly building inspection) for me to "Remove wood, cardboard, brush and all other litter and debris from rear yard to alley."  The inspection was made on the 3rd - apparently just after I'd left for a 4th of July trip to St. Paul.  A notice was supposedly left somewhere at the time.  I didn't find anything upon my return on the 6th.  There was no litter and debris.  The cardboard was an empty box from a fan my tenant had just purchased.  It wouldn't fit into the full blue recycling cart that hadn't been emptied the last time the truck(s) came through the alley.  The old fan was in the carport - as was the tarp covered car my tenant has parked there since February.

10th:  The city front end loader crew came through the alley at 6:30 in the morning to pick up the stuff that was in the alley or accessible in ungated areas next to the alley.  Some of the 'after' pictures show garbage and litter much more serious than my "recycled" wood - actually the old front yard fencing thrown away across the alley and saved by me for future decking, fencing or gardening usage.  After finally getting through to Milwaukee's search addresses cite (the "Property Recording, Violations, Service Requests, Permits" portion was inaccessible yesterday), I discovered that the most egregiously garbage and litter strewn cites did not receive orders similar to mine.  (I'm assuming the wood needed to be moved to abate a possible fire hazard for being too close to the garage next door - hey, almost all of the more than a dozen garages burned to the ground in our and the next alley east were started in garbage carts left adjacent to the garage -- seemingly a much more serious hazard NOT BEING ADDRESSED by notices such as these.

The section of the code quoted in the order is:

I moved the wood from the garage area to the rear yard, saving the cardboard in case the city tries to charge my property taxes for a clean-up they say they may have done - took before and after pictures of various much more litter saturated spots in our alley - all for evidence in case this turns into a typically SNAFU situation sometime in the future.  Deconstructed some of the fencing to remove nails and save many pieces of already aged and 'outdoor' weathered wood for eventual use on some outdoor project - will have to check to find out what I'm allowed to place in my yard without too much hassle from the city, first.

23rd:  Returned from Paul & Milka's wedding in Long Beach; with a side trip to Riverside and Rubidoux (formerly West Riverside) to take pictures of the old homestead.  House and neighborhood were still here - all is well.

27th:  Finally got around to taking a picture of one of the tire airing and bike fixing sessions with some of the local kids who are among the 1,200 to have come and gone from our block between 1987 and 2005.

30th:  Called in another seemingly (?stolen?) abandoned auto - this one being parked in front of the group home next door.  The turn signal lever is missing - the right front tire is flat - the front plate is missing and both the passenger and driver's windows have been left open.  (Teen boys have moved into three or four flats on the block in the past month.)  The car was still there on August 7th!

1st:  Tickets were issued to cars parked in front of my house last last night - one to the apparently abandoned car and two others to the cars of renters next door.  Tickets will undoubtedly be issued again, tonight, given that today is another odd numbered day - making two odd days in a row and, thereby, increasing the likelihood that more people will forget that and park on the 'even' side of the street tonight -- thereby increasing the number of tickets the parking checkers can issue on one night to keep up their averages and not have to work (so hard) the rest of the month.  [ Another picture taken in 1993 shows more than 12 tickets issued in one night - proving that hardly anyone buys permits or obeys the odd/even parking laws -- primarily because they can get away with it for so long without receiving tickets.  Early morning on 5/29/03, all but three cars were legally parking - those three perhaps parked after the odd-even restrictions had expired. ]

2nd:  Helped Cash Money fix the front tire on his bike today.  Also sang Happy Birthday to him - today being his 8th.  His real name is Unquail - Cash Money being his 'street' name.  Told him I was 7 years old, too, when first moving into this house on this block with my 3 brothers and two sisters - back in 1950.

7th:  Called the mayor's office regarding the abandoned Buick Regal (WI WHK-140) still unmoved from 25+ inches away from the curb since at least July 26th.  One of the teenagers from the upper flat a couple doors north of me stated that it belonged to his mother's boyfriend - someone who obviously cares nothing about our neighborhood -- especially about introducing hazardous conditions into our neighborhood.  (The car was gone later that afternoon - undoubtedly due to the message delivered to the boyfriend about it being towed if not moved.)

22nd:  Finally discovered how to use JavaScript to include files from another source into files - meaning that all the code I added to each page over the past two months can be replaced by a one line call to another file -- meaning that each of those files will now be considerably reduced in size, thereby taking up less space on the server.  It also means that I can now instantly change all 800+ web pages at once by making changes to only one MASTER file containing the called code.  The copyright notice at the bottom of each page will be the first to change - once I designed something nice for the email and guestbook icons that needed to be added there.
    The www.Cyriac-FHP.com was the first page completely redone to eliminate redundancy - one must look at the source code to notice the difference between what's there and what actually displays on the page itself.

26th:  Well, this year's ShermanFest, now called the Family Festival, was held yesterday at four different venues in the northern half of the Sherman Park Community Association's boundaries.  I was responsible for the activities taking place at the 53rd street school location.  Needless to say, we reinvented the wheel once again, but at least a half-dozen participants complimented us for the activities - especially all the options available for kids.  Attendance was less than 1/5th of that anticipated - based upon the number of porta-potties delivered.

27th:  Looks like we may have some more auto thieves in the hood.  An abandoned auto was discovered in the alley this morning - a circa ?1970s? orange Olds 98 (WI 235-CWP) with Chicago Vehicle Tax stickers in the front window.  Called it in after four attempts to do so - the first number (police non-emergency) gave me the second number -- remote phone died during the 2nd attempts --- push buttons didn't work on 3rd attempt phone ---- programmed the number into my 64 number AT&T 2000 speaker/dialer ($90 purchase in 1986) and finally got through.  The car was gone within the next 2 hours.

31st:  Took pictures of a large tame rabbit that's apparently been in the neighborhood for the past couple days - most likely another abandonment by someone no longer wanting a "cute little bunny" for their precious child.  It came right up to me and let me scratch its head when I talked to it but ran off when I went to scratch its back - apparently being afraid I was going to grab it by the nape of the neck.  It may be hanging around near all the water that's always in my side yard near the picnic table and rear door.  It was also eating all the dandelion leaves and stems - a handy pet to have!

1st:  Dontel, Damien and Little Mike posed in front the the newly installed Tom Barrett (for Governor) signs on the light pole in my back yard.  They were in the process of wheeling a recycling cart into the alley from their rear yard to who knows where.  Figuring they were up to no good, I distracted them and struck up a conversation to trade names and eventually take the picture.  Most kids are easily distracted (for as long as an adult is around) given that they're just about doing anything to have fun - most of the activities of which are usually a detriment to the neighborhood.
23rd:  UPS delivered my brand new Logitech Pocket Digital Camera today.  As can be seen at the new web site created for it and the another resulting from a Tuesday (Sep 24th) trip to visit mother, it does a pretty damn good job under various lighting conditions - all without a flash attachment.  It's also the essence of KISSivity - Keep It Simple Stupid -- the controls and symbols associated therewith being fairly intuitive.  AND, it 's small enough to keep in my pants or "velcro'd" shirt pocket 24-7 - guaranteeing that I'll never again see anything dangerous or interesting enough to photograph from now on.

29th:  Larry, a 14 year old who lives in the upper flat 2 houses north, was involved in another glass breaking incident last night around 8:30.  (The rest of this incident is now containing at the new THUGS web site.

What with the previous night's activities and having my new PDC, I decided to take a walk up North Avenue for the first time since last year - haven't been taking those exercise jaunts since beginning my 40 minute daily exercise routine each morning.  Well, I discovered that one must frame the top of tall pictures in the view finder and not worry about the bottom.  My first shots cut out the top of that steep spired church at 21st and North.  (The picture shown was taken a week later while in the neighborhood for the community meeting regarding the thuggish mob murder that had been abuilding while I was walking two blocks north of it.)

8th:  Mowed the lawn for the 14th and last time this year.  The first mowing for next year won't occur until May 3rd.

20th:  Found a bunch of these 'blank' numbered, 4-part, Airport Connection, Round Trip tickets laying on the street and my front lawn this morning.  There was also a lot of broken glass on the street and in the alley.  Larry may have been released from his latest detention or some of his peers may have decided to exhibit their childish behavior again last night while the 'decent' residents on our block were sleeping.  A limo driver may have been robbed, attacked, ripped-off or who know's what as part of it all.

5th:  The vote sign has been up since last evening.  Hopefully, the turnout on our block will increase because of it.  One parent, walking her daughter to the local bus stop this morning, asked where we voted.  I told her it was up at Finney Library at the corner of Sherman and North.

Don't know where we're going to be voting once the new library is completed and the old one closed - the new Washington Park Library is outside the boundaries of both two existing voting wards.

7th:  What's significant about that picture is that the U-Haul truck ISN'T BACKED UP OVER THE CURB ONTO THE SIDEWALK!  That may have something to do with why Larry and his family are moving out.  The 7th is indeed a blessed day for our neighborhood.

8th:  Well, someone tried to steal the only thing of value left after Larry and his family moved out - a stained glass window.  Thanks to the alertness of a neighbor, the police arrived soon enough to thwart the robbery and ordered the lower front door leading to the upper flat boarded - the landlord being out of state and not able to get there soon enough to do it himself.  (I let them know that that lower entry door to the upper flat hadn't been lockable for years - wild kids and angry boyfriends, of course.)

(Note that the leaves on the sidewalks and lawns were all blown there from trees in front of other houses - all our broad leafing trees being cut-down long ago -- we now having to rake them into the street for the eventual street sweeper pick-up.)

Had ?another? shooting near 44th and North this afternoon.  Took   around 1:30 after walking by earlier, the first time - forgetting I had the camera in my pocket.

18th:  Dan, the owner/manager of the duplex Larry and his family moved out of on the 7th put out a fire at the corner of the group home between us early this morning.  It's an odd place for a fire to start and may have been an arson attempt - albeit a really incompetent one.
    Dan's in the process of repainting and repairing the upper flat.  He apologized for bringing Larry and his family into the neighborhood after I explained that they'd ruined the four years of relative peace and quiet we'd enjoyed on our block since 1978.  Larry's mom lied on her Rent Assistance application and had forged his signature on a lease renewal for another year - needless to say, the 'extra' residents showed up inside the flat immediately after she moved in.  (The youngest, Lance, and a couple of his buddies were chased out of the flat by a baseball bat yielding man from the lower flat the other night - the mom has yet to turn her keys in to the landlord.) 26th:  Well, we had a green, green Christmas.  What little snow did come was blown away by a slight breeze - probably heading to the east coast to join the rest inundating that area. 31st:  The last day of the year is here and my webmastering skills have made a hyper-leap from those extant at the end of last year.  Didn't send out any Christmas cards this year to protest the latest increase in the postal rates - doesn't the U. S. Post Office ever consider becoming more productive or efficient?!  Did get a bunch of cards, though.  Will have to email thanks to everyone - possibly pointing to this section of this diary page to show the proof that their cards were received.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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