Civility and Dystopia and a Mad Man in Charge in Everyday Ramblings

We had a break in the rain yesterday morning for a few hours and under quite changeable skies I was able to get this shot of some decorative trees starting to bloom in an empty parking lot I was walking through.

I was walking home from my Weight Watcher’s meeting. Mrs. Sherlock had to cancel our planned walk because something had come up with her oldest friend here that she needed to attend to. So I was on my own.

As I was walking from the bus earlier to the meeting (it is about 3 ½ miles away so I don’t walk both ways plus it is not safe to walk this route in the dark) I heard a noise across the street and looked up and there was a guy, a burly guy with a beard in just a t-shirt and jeans sprawled on the street with his arms thrown over his head his feet close to the curb.

There were two police officers talking to him putting on those blue medical gloves they carry. They were asking if they could take him home. As I was reaching the corner they were both trying to help pull, drag him out of the street. It was just 6 degrees above freezing.

All day I was entertaining various scenarios about what would bring this man, well fed, to be lying in the street at 7 AM on a Saturday morning and really how incredibly challenging being a police officer must be.

Since the election I have noticed among the homeless and drug addicted and mentally ill people I see on the streets a rougher element. They have skateboards and bikes built out of stolen parts. There is more a sense of menace and that makes me sad. I encountered that a little further on my walk as I went by a hole in a fence that is supposed to protect the area under the freeway from encampments.

This is right next to these huge concrete boulders they placed there also to discourage encampments. There were four young people stepping out onto the mixed-use path checking me to see if I was going to be a problem for them.

And then a bit later as I was walking down the ramp off the Hawthorne Bridge noticing that someone had defaced the cool sign that shows how many bikes have used the bridge during this year I decided as there wasn’t much traffic to step off the curb and jay walk across the road and just as I put my foot into the street this guy on a bicycle came barreling down the ramp screaming at me in a raging way to get out of the street.

I did. He didn’t even come close to hitting me. Plus I was wearing a bright red jacket that is easy to see. The wild anger in his voice scared me and stayed with me.

I admit my back was bothering me. All this work I am doing on it has unsettled it and it was complaining and I was just thinking about the quickest way home. I think I may be fighting off this flu that is going around that wasn’t included in the flu vaccine this year…

Stomach cramps, headache…you get the picture.

And then a few minutes later I was walking on a sidewalk over a freeway bridge that is next to another encampment and yes I admit I was looking at my phone and this guy appeared out of nowhere and brushed past me.

The world is changing. The place I live is becoming more densely populated and not in a good way. With traffic and uncivil society. We have a mentally ill president. I can say that because I am not a psychological professional and am allowed to have an unscientific opinion.

At least for now…

After sleeping most of the day yesterday after I got home I still feel tired but better.

I am so grateful for the basics like heat and running water, not only that but running hot water and electricity and food to feed the cats and myself.

And that I don’t presently need to live in a tent under a freeway bridge next to some men that are turning mean to cope with the dystopian dream that could become a reality being broadcast 140 characters at a time from a big white house built by slave labor over a swamp.

The buds up there as they reach for warmth and nourishment give me hope.

Last updated March 05, 2017