Neighborhood Watch-watching doesn't mean killing

Both my kids, son and daughter are doing their in service training, one this week, one next, it's a yearly event. Both in law enforcement, one State, one Federal and like clockwork the have to train, be re-certified in certain aspects of their fields; for their safety and for the safety of the public, make sense doesn't it?

Got me to thinking about this other thing......

Trayvon Martin- victim

It's all over the news, a man belonging to a neighborhood watch in Florida shot and killed a child in a gated community. A gated community with gun toting neighborhood watch personnel, damn! I don't know about any of you but for me watching doesn't mean killing, watching doesn't mean carrying a gun.  Watching means if you see or come upon something suspicious you get on your cell or phone and call the police.Watchers should just darn well watch, guns in the hands of untrained people pretty much always result in tragedy.

I just can't wrap my head around what this guy was thinking! If he thought the child was breaking the law then he should have called the police. What was he doing that was so bad that couldn't wait for the police to respond to the scene?  What a fool to think that he could do a cops job. It's my guess is he's going to be brought up on charges for this child's death.

Police have a function in our society. They wear uniform and have a badge a car that is identifiable.  In most cases respect their authority, they are trained on how to talk to the public in the most tense and violent situations, they have firearms training and renew their training yearly as I said earlier. They have the authority to investigate search and arrest.  They most certainly do not shoot unarmed people especially children, nobody should be allowed to shoot an unarmed person.

Think about this. What would you do? What would your child do if a man without a uniform in possession of a gun confronted either of you  or all of you and pointed a firearm one night...... have you ever had a loaded gun pointed in your face? I'd fight for my life, what about you? And I bet that's exactly what this kid did because that man had no authority over him, no badge no uniform.

My thoughts on this;  I'm thinking this guy is just a bully with a gun, I bet maybe even a cop wanna-be and now a he's  murderer... just sayin!

Now that precious child is dead and his parents are living the nightmare no parent should EVER have to live, you can take that from me as a damn fact, the rest is just my opinion.

photo day- these past few days....the rundown

Firstly, I wanted to thank each and every one of you for your concern for my health. As it turns out my Lyme's Disease test was negative so that's good news. I have every confidence my doctor will figure out what's going on with all this joint pain and my rash. The pain for the most part seems to have abated, maybe it's the anti-inflammatory medications he has me taking.  Hopefully whatever it is; is done......

In any case, you've all been very kind and I promise I'll let you know if I find out anything from my doctor when I do.

This weekend my husband and I went up to Charlottesville, Virginia for a funeral of our friend and neighbors brother. He was a long time police officer on their local police force, his deceased brother was once Commissioner of Police and he was eulogized by no less then three Commissioners of Police.  There's something about a funeral of a cop, and the love of his fellow officers was quite evident in the sea of blue uniforms that lined the pews of the church. Quite sad....very moving.

And although it was a sad time and our primary reason for being there was to be with our friends, we did go to the pedestrian mall downtown.... what a nice place. Sometimes you just need to clear your head, get some fresh air, take a walk and then there's this thing called food! So we went to the place where there's restaurants, shopping, theater and  local musicians playing in the square, like this gentleman here. Bill and I found time to go there twice once for lunch and once for dinner but mostly we enjoyed walking and chatting with merchants, musicians and soaking in some of the atmosphere.

I wasn't sad to come home however. Have I mentioned how much I hate staying in hotels? Hotels are the most horrible places where I think the air quality is terrible, do you agree? Unless they're on a beach, then I can take it..... Didn't get to do to much with the camera this week, hope you like my pictures.

live and learn - my crazy neighbors part two

My husband and I with a great deal of trepidation decided to go to Florida to deal with our second home there. If you missed the reason why we went down you need to read  my crappy neighbor.  I pray the market will turn around soon so I can sell it but I'm not hopeful, really I'm not. Our intention was for it to be a get away home but with the neighbors we have on one side are SO terrible; we really dread being there; sad huh?

We rather suspect but we can't prove that the son who we had removed in handcuffs from our home having parties misusing our key kicked in a few of the bottom panels of our aging garage door. Their cats (his family happens to have many many cats) that they feed  but do not claim as theirs; were living in our garage, nice right?

You would think we did something to them for goodness sake's, they wouldn't even look at us if they came out of their house. I don't know maybe it's just me. If I do something wrong and got caught red handed by the police *hello* I'd apologize!  How hard can that be?

Now we're never going to talk to each other ever; is just juvenile and stupid?  For the love of Pete, say you're sorry and we'll say we accept your apology and then we'll move on. We're not ever going to be friends but for goodness sake's ignoring or feuding is just RIDICULOUS and pain in my ass!

My ass hurts!

It always surprises me when you think people are one way and they end up being totally different. Like from another planet!

Anyway we dealt with the issues at the house the best we could. Had a nice visit with a few of the other neighbors then decided to turn our trip into a mini vacation! Why the heck not I say!

Check back, I'm putting together a post and getting my photo's in order; my hubby and I spent a few days in St Augustine. Wow what a nice city!

my crappy neighbor

We own a house in Florida that we don't live in and use infrequently. With the economy as it is and the housing market in the toilet I would venture a guess that my second home is worth about two cents right now. My husband has some rather strong feelings about being absentee landlords so we use it when we can. Lately however our time has been taken up with family time and health concerns so our trips have been far and few between.

Anyway because we live in Virginia, we had an agreement with the neighbor he would check on the house and mow the grass for a fee, plus we gave them our riding mower as part of the agreement. This all went perfectly well until the neighbor got a job outside the country and passed the job to his stepson. He is in his late twenties so we didn't anticipate any problems as far as whether he's be of a responsible age.

At first things seemed to be OK, it turns out however he was misusing the key we gave him in case of emergencies. One of the other neighbors called one weekend night several months ago saying there was a rather noisy party going on in my house. You see he has this pack of male friends, I've often wondered what in the world they do since they are around at all times of  the day and night. I don't think they work with any regularity or go to college for that matter. So I wasn't shocked after the police arrived at our request to hear that several people were arrested for illegal possession of who knows what and they along with our not so trustworthy neighbor were all taken out of our house in handcuffs.

My husband and my son Matthew changed the locks and I was happy about that. But for me I felt so betrayed. It bothered me that all those strange people were in my house touching my stuff. It bothered me that he betrayed my trust when I thought he was worthy of it. It bothered me that he didn't care that it was our space-our home when he was free to have parties in his parents house right next door.

My neighbor just called again today, it seems he's a little slow in the head he and his friends parked a moving truck in my driveway. I'm not sure what part of don't come on my property he doesn't understand but one of the men from down the block confronted him about being on the property and he and his friends moved.

There is still no beach for me because of my leg but it's time for me and my husband to hit the Florida sunshine and make our presence known to our crappy neighbor. My leg is just good enough to give him a swift kick in the rear end. So Monday after my wound doctor appointment appointment we'll be off for a few days to see what's going on. Then we can pay a nice visit and have a cold one with the good neighbors; yes we actually do have a few!

I have really good neighbors in the town where I live and I have a hard time imagining what it would be like having to live with bad neighbors all the time, it must be horrible. This guy down in Florida really bugs me to no end. Have you ever had a crappy neighbor or been betrayed by one?

if you want to get drunk- get a sitter or get a mug shot - look and see

The beauty below in the mug shot is my former daughter in law, she it seems decided to go out and get plastered and left our granddaughter 10 years old and her little sister 2 years old (that would be the child she had by another man while still married to my step son) home alone until 1:45 am bar hopping with friends.

The police found the kids alone then later found her unconscious in a neighbors apartment, douche-bag! She was charged with two counts of contributing of the delinquency of a minor. I would not be lying to say I dislike this women, she is nothing but trouble always has been, now her stock just crashed not that it could have possibly have gotten any lower.

this is a mug shot of my former daughter in law
she's a beauty isn't she?

My granddaughter called her father to say she was frightened (if you read this blog regularly you know i never mention him- there is a reason) he's a moocher who doesn't work and lives off the kindness of others and he wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in the ass. Pretty much makes it impossible to have a relationship with him since he doesn't have respect for boundaries;  he doesn't understand the concept and thus has none. He's no youngster nor is she they are both over 30.

So where was he you ask when she called him? On vacation in California. For what you might wonder since he doesn't work? I for one would love to know. He has two living siblings they work, they get vacations, that makes sense to me. He doesn't nor does this behavior.

So lets guess what he did and if the welfare of the kids is important to him?

Option one-  he answered the phone when the child called and came right home like any normal parent would do to protect and comfort his child and her little sister.

Option two- stayed in California and delegated his parenting responsibilities, put his beach pictures on Facebook not cutting his vacation short at all.

Bingo and the winner is Option two you won  the..."you can smell a crappy parent 2600 miles away" prize.  Bravo!

He did however lift one more finger and call his ex-mother in law to take care of them. Didn't call us, no chance in hell of that, because if he would have we would have blasted him for not coming home, being responsible putting the children's needs first.

Privacy laws are making it hard for us to get information other than the kids are fine and the police let the mother in law take the kids that night. But we found out she apparently was told by my step son to turn them over to some friends of his. Who knows if the authorities know of that arrangement. We do feel better however now that the police and CPS have a case; FINALLY and hopefully once this thing gets into court maybe a judge will make them answer for their behavior. God knows we've tried and failed more times than I care to admit.

These two have been a nightmare for our whole family since the day they've met; and he to a lesser degree before that.

And the children every time I think of them and the lives they've had at the hands of these two my heart just breaks. Because when it comes down to it their lives are the real nightmare and we're just the spectators.

Some people just shouldn't be allowed to have kids, ya know!