Observances from my front porch, windows, and back yard in this past week:
1. People across the street fixing up the columns on the front of the house. I don’t know much about construction, but I’m questioning their technique. At any rate, it’s nice to hear 90’s Alternative Rock blasting in the neighborhood.
2. There is a cat in the neighborhood that is the doppleganger of our cat. She’s got the same coloring, but is feral and has a bushier tail. Last night I saw her emerge from the dumpster at 3:20a.m.
3. Neighborhood kids screeching about something they found in the grass that was terrifying. Could be a snake, frog, or some large insect. Maybe a worm.
4. Sparrows visiting my birdfeeders.
5. The garden. I am slowly reclaiming the yard from grass, planting anything with substantial roots and color. The garage is now lined with Silver Mound. Yesterday, I added a pink rose bush to the front of the house. Anyone want to bet how long it takes for me to kill it?
6. Another random cat, this one black and white, sunning herself by the tomato plants. I think she was panting. It looked like her tongue was hanging out of her mouth.
7. A pile of weeds decaying in the back. This area is where the compost machine used to be before it was moved into the basement.
Contrast this scene to all these “news stories” I’ve heard of in the past week or so:
1. Elderly man robbed around midnight a few streets over.
2. A recently paroled man shot in the chest and killed, one street away.
3. A woman tied up and robbed in her home, one street over from where the guy was killed. This happened on a Sunday afternoon.
4. An armed robbery in the building next door, a few weeks ago.
5. Several knifepoint robberies down on Franklin Ave., including the robbery of Art Feltman.
So, what is it about this working class, residential area that makes it less deserving of public sympathy?