The thermometer in the shade of the back porch actually DOES read 110 degrees. And clouds are building up all around us.
Truth to tell, 110 would be tolerable if it were really “a dry heat.” But with monsoon storms rearing up 360 degrees around the horizon, “dry heat” it ain’t.
***
Heh! Probably the sobriquet “Crime Central” overstates conditions here in the ‘Hood. But it appears I’m not the only resident in the habit of looking at things that way.
When I bop on down to the ultra-local Sprouts, on the northeast corner of Conduit of Blight and Main Drag South, I spot a Police Situation in progress: four cop cars out in front of the Walgreen’s on the corner, lights flashing frantically. It’s a couple hundred yards across the shopping center’s parking lot, though, and…and…well…i want that damn ice cream!
So, screw it: I park the car and dart into the Sprouts. Grab the ice cream and shoot back out through the checkout line. Staff there had not yet heard news of the present drama. Which, once I get situated in the Dog Chariot, I see is still fully under way. Half a dozen officers are swarming. None of the cop cars’ lights have been shut off.
Circle back north over the parking lot — in the opposite direction from the Scene of the Whatever-it-is. Slide south on Blight (the only way you can go because of the effing light-rail tracks, which are fortified with concrete borders), slither past the Walgreen’s Theater, hang a U-ie to bolt up toward the ‘Hood. Proceed north, surprisingly enough, without interference.
Now fully infected with curiosity, minutes after walking in the door, I get on the Web in search of a report as to what is going on.
- No clue on the police dispatch site.
- No clue on the local gnus sites.
Post a query on the neighborhood Facebook page, which is haunted by locals with powerful radars.
Got a clue what was going on at the 19th & Northern Walgreen’s this afternoon, along about 3;30 or so? At least 4 police cars were standing near the door, lights flashing.
Forthwith, get an answer:
Probably just because it’s a day that ends in “y”… in that area it’s such a common event. I’m frustrated that we have to think about a “safe” way to enter/exit our neighborhood anymore… which usually means East or south, but rarely north, and almost never west.
Heh! Well…yep!
Never a dull moment! Been meaning to ask – what ever happened with the “care home” Tony the Romanian Landlord was going to establish across the street?
Unclear! The two young men he installed a few lots up the street are still there — apparently are living there, after having pulled out a ton of cabinetry and other interior improvements that had been installed by the previous owners. No sign (yet) that they’re about to install inmates there. Gossip has it, though, that he intends to turn the house directly across the street, which was occupied by his daughter’s in-laws, into a half-way house for delinquent boys.