It Turned Into a Rant

I so seldom show you the unlovely and, when I do, I cover it with something pretty.  In *this case,* I covered it with a butterfly, copying a device PW once used. (In fact, I found that post by searching for "rip-off" and I was shocked to discover how often I have ripped people off in this blog of mine. Four pages of rip-offs! Scary.)

~Garbage from here...~

The butterfly was covering a truck wreck sitting in the backyard of a neighbor. This unsightly view is clearly visible to us as we sit at our dining table. (The mess is, in fact, the reason we so seldom sit at the dining room table.) Since that time, nearly four years ago now, the property has become so run down that I use a severe camera angle when taking a photo of my near neighbor's beautiful trees and home.

~to there~

Four years ago, the property was purchased by a family with three boys in their teens. Perhaps they were a hardworking family. Perhaps the man of the house was working hard to raise plants in his basement, if the traffic every Thursday was any indication. Perhaps life was very hard. It is for a lot of people these days.

Anyway, to make a long story shorter, the house went into foreclosure; it took two years to have the process work its way through the system; the family, now a broken one, left a few months ago. The house sat in its own filth over the winter and was finally purchased for a song this spring. (Some of our neighbors looked at it to see if there was any way to purchase it as a fixer-upper and determined that there was simply too much to do. Bulldozing seemed the only option.)


I tell you all this to show you exactly what I see from my windows daily. These days I am encouraged because a new owner is gutting the house and has brought in a giant dumpster. It may be a long, hot summer, but one day there'll be improvement. The house is going to be rented out or flipped. The current owner isn't sure. One thing is certain: he has a lot of work ahead of him.

Thing is, there are many homes in town that are in equally rough shape. (In fact, I have never seen the town look any more in shambles even during the C*rter years, which were difficult times as well.) I grumble about the disgrace of it all because it is one thing to be poor and another to not pick up the trash. It is one thing not to be able to afford new siding (I well know) and another to allow the shutters to hang by the last nail.  There is one thing about taking down the shutters and quite another about leaving the Christmas tree on the front step. I think people's spirits are in shambles, too. Yes, I'm feeling disgruntled today. I feel as if I'm walking around in 1932. Am I the only one feeling this way?

~and this is why I don't open my front curtains...~

Here's to better times ahead.