Out of the Inkwell

It was birthday on Thursday – May 29th, which is also the birthday of Patrick Henry, Bob Hope and JFK. I turned 54 and feel many days like Tommy Lee Jones' character in "No Country for Old Men."

At a time when I think I should have a handle on understanding many things in life, there appears to be so much that is just incomprehensible.

The house next to us has been abandoned. It is supposedly in foreclosure although a check with the Registry of Deeds didn't indicate that action has been taken yet. So you knows who is responsible for the property.

Here's the series of puzzling events: The people who own it (?) left the house unlocked and with the electricity on. Young people have already vandalized the house with gang graffiti. Our across -the street-neighbor put his trash into that house's trash can, rather than his own and apparently put an old wooden toy box on the sidewalk for pick-up despite the fact the garbage guys wouldn't pick it up.

Local kids then smashed the toy box into separate boards and made a bike ramp out of it. At some point someone smashed the debris more and spread it all over the sidewalk and street.

My wife and I cleaned up the debris and the city, at my request, sealed up the house.

There are so unnecessary screw-you actions in this little urban drama. It's difficult to view people as essentially good when so many of them do things that are petty and mean-spirited.

Oh well... hey at least Mary got me a hell of present – a turntable that converts vinyl recordings into digital files. I don;t listen to my vinyl very much but I've got a lot of recordings I love and this will enable me to convert them into a more desirable format.

© 2008 by Gordon Michael Dobbs