Holiday Traditions and a Drug House

This weekend was fun and frustrating at the same time. Friday night I decided we were going to get our house ready for Christmas. Out came the ornaments and set around stuff. Maizie, as always was very excited. With each ornament Maizie said, "Did I make this mom? Who made this one? Is this one mine from when I was a baby? When can I be a baby again?" The questions never stopped.

While we were decorating the tree I heard some strange noises in between the houses. I opened the back door to find one of our neighbors trying to break into the electrical box to his apartment. He looked at me and said in his usual drug induced way, "I am just tightening things up back here! That's all." I smiled, nodded and closed the door.

Joe and I discussed that we thought he was going to get electrocuted and then he knocked on the door. Joe answered and he asked if we had a Philip's screwdriver. Joe said, "Sorry, we don't." Needless to say, we do but we don't want to get into the habit of handing out tools to the neighbors for illegal activities.

I peeked through the window blinds to see him pushing a screwdriver into the box and trying to pull the door off. I noticed a large lock had been placed on the bottom of the electrical box. Putting two and two together I realized our neighbor must not have paid the bill and was trying to turn his power back on. He was making some progress but the way he was haphazardly jamming the various tools he had into that box made me nervous.

I held my phone, staring at it and staring back out the window. Finally, I called the police and they had me stay on the line giving a description of our neighbor and waiting till the cop arrived. Once the police came our neighbor took off like a lightning bolt through the back yard and down the alley. The cop followed, flashlight in hand and gun out. Lovely.

I began running from window to window. A sight Maizie has unfortunately witnessed on many occasions. I heard the loud annoying squeak the neighbors door makes every time it is opened or closed and ran to the front. The man had already made it back to the safety of his apartment and the cop was still running in the wrong direction. Argh!

I called the police station back and told them that the guy went back into his apartment. The cop gets the message and came back huffing and puffing, knocking on the front door. It took quite a while for the guys to answer. Once they did I heard one of the men saying, "I swear! It was not me! I just got back from walking down from the liquor store." No doubt he was telling the truth since our neighbors like to begin drinking early in the morning and into the night. In fact, it seems that they don't require any sleep at all.

I heard tempers flaring and reluctantly peeked my head out the door. The cops turned to look at me and pointed to the man they were accusing of trying to break into the electrical box. I shook my head no and they reentered the apartment. They came out with the other guy and I nodded 'yes'. Not happy. Not happy at all. It is bad enough that I have to call the cops a few times a week on our neighbors but now our neighbors knew I had called this time. Not cool.

I have went out of my way to always say hello and treat my annoying and sometimes scary neighbors with the respect they want and I am sure verifying who was who did not please them. I only hoped that they were all too drunk and doped up on crack to remember me.

I went back in the house, reassured Maizie that it was over and we began decorating again. Maizie kept peeking out the front window waiting to see if the guy was going to be arrested. Maizie is all too familiar with the process. Finally she yelled, "There is the cop mom!" I ran back to the window and saw that they were indeed arresting the man. That surprised me.

I heard the cops back at the electrical boxes talking so I went out to see if there was anything new they could tell me about our drug house next door.

One of the cops looked up and said, "Now, if you hear anything else tonight or need anything please don't hesitate to call. We are arresting him but he will be out in a few hours. (I sighed real big.) Also, you may want to call narcotics again."

I explained how many times I have called narcotics and nothing seems to be happening.

The cops explained that there are undercover cops working on the situation in unmarked cars and that it takes a great deal of time. Yes, it certainly must.

I told the cops that sometimes I have felt bad calling because I know the neighbors are struggling on a number of levels....financially, with severe addictions, etc. I asked them if I could be imagining the drug use? The cops brought up the incident last week where they were called because a man on crack cocaine had beat up a woman he was with. I nodded my head since I had talked to that woman on that night as well. She said this to me when I went out to my car, "I am trying so hard. So hard to be clean and just be a good person. I have been off crack for seven days, I loved this guy and thought he loved me and then he does this to me." I nodded and found myself at a loss for words. I said, "Don't give up. Whatever you do....just keep trying." I quickly went back into the house not waiting for a response.

The cops went on to say, "Just remember that if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it is probably a duck."

Okay. We just gotta find a way to move out of this house at some point. Our neighborhood is historic and beautiful, there are some really good people here and yet there are some people who are very desperate and don't want to live according to the rules of society. What more can I do? There seems to be nothing. I just get so frustrated and angry. I called the landlord again. He lives in a nice house outside of the down town area and could care less. I make a point of calling him whenever I call the cops. He never answers.

The next night we had my mom over for her birthday. The whole family was here and it was a very nice time. I know my parents worry about us living here. They are glad to have us back in Indiana but are not happy we live in this house next to that house. Yes, buying this house was not the best decision we have ever made. We moved to this modest house when we had no insurance coverage for Maizie. Her medications and hospital stays were being refused and mental coverage was being dropped. Debt was piling quickly and we freaked, scaling way down. So, we are stuck here for right now.

What will Maizie remember of these nights decorating for Christmas? The frequent incidents with our neighbors or the meaning behind every ornament she hangs?

I shake it off and we make the best of our cozy little cottage house.

Our Neighbors Update

You know you are getting a reputation of hating garbage in the neighborhood when your neighbors/friends a few houses down show you a really nasty piece of trash in the street right in front of their house. Lets just say it is an object that I won't mention since I don't want people searching for that particular item and finding my blog. It was nasty. Now, I would like to think that this particular item just happened to fall from a garbage truck. That it was thrown away correctly but just happened to fall out of a bag and onto the street. Ummm....yeah...right. I joked with my friends to keep their "toys" to themselves! I went back to working on the front yard in disgust. In all the places I have lived for all these years I have never once seen one of these decorating the neighborhood. Not impressed.

I hope our friends did the right thing. Put on some gloves and disposed of the item properly. Hint. Hint. Hey, if it is in the street in front of their yard...they get the fun job of cleaning it up! If I find it rolls down our way....well...ugh.

Since we are here for who knows how long we continue to fix up our home while dealing with the never ending items of garbage surrounding our home. I have managed to make some progress in cleaning up our immediate area... a bit.

The house next door has had one apartment condemned. This may be good. The coke heads that lived there have been kicked out. The landlord was there today with a certified electrician getting the place back up to code. (Or at least I hope.) The yard has been mowed! Yes!
The nasty white van surrounded by tires and trash has finally been tagged. There has yet to be movement so I suspect it will be there for the next twenty days until it is towed. I suppose we can wait twenty days since it has been there longer than I can remember. The pile of cardboard behind the neighborhood association president's rental home has yet to be cleaned up.Maizie begged me to go to the park today. We have had a kite sitting around for months. Today it was windy so we were both determined to fly it. Our car is in the shop so we had no choice but to check out our neighborhood park.

I was not looking forward to seeing "the mess" that is Moody Park. I knew there would still be no garbage cans and since we just ended the weekend it would be trashed. Trashed it was. I found numerous Gatorade bottles, Pepsi cans, plastic wrap, a toy knife, buckets, milk jugs and a long pipe under a bench. Oh, and if your park does not have sand to play in why not have your children dig a nice big hole and create one themselves? Lovely. So creative.



I realize there is one big problem with cleaning up a park. The people visiting it are a large part of the problem. If no one cares if the park is dirty then why add the trash cans? Are there other people going to the park who look at it in disgust, with skin crawling as their children crawl around the nasty area? When the garbage cans finally arrive what will happen? I suspect they will be vandalized or over filled with odd trash items from a nearby home. I am at least hoping that people will take the time to dispose of diapers in the trash cans. One can hope, right? I used to take a bag and pick up trash whenever we visited. I have grown weary of doing so and just choose to avoid the park instead.Luckily, when I called the mayor's office about the trash cans again today they made no mention of the reasons why trash cans might not be at this particular park. The nice man admitted he forgot to take action on this and was going to do so today. I assured him we would be talking again real soon.

Our neighborhood is historic and there are some beautiful properties here. How will this neighborhood ever grow if the one park right in the neighborhood is a disgusting mess? Who would want to move into this area with young children? The city focuses on building a new baseball stadium right down our street but our inner neighborhood parks are forgotten messes. I don't wear rose colored glasses when walking around the neighborhood. My eyes are wide open. I see the beautiful aspects of nice homes and I can even see the beauty in some of the deteriorating buildings. I guess I keep on making phone calls and carrying the occasional bag of garbage home from the park. With my current lifestyle I don't have the time to do much more than that.

Neighbors from Hell and Landscaping Fun

After an adventure filled weekend of playing drums at the zoo with Maralyn we decided to do more landscaping on the yard. Maizie and I went to Lowes to purchase some plants for the front yard. We had to find plants that grow well in the shade with a little bit of sun. Maizie quickly learned how to read the growing tips for plants. It was hard for her to resist picking out the plants with big beautiful blooms on them. I explained that we needed perennials which seemed to confuse and upset her so we focused on sun versus shade. She picked out a few annuals for our sunny back yard to appease her need for bright colors.
This is our challenge. In the photo above we have our neighbors yard. We live in row houses that were built in the early 1800's so our neighbors "meadow" is right next to the side walk that divides our yards. I took this picture last week after reporting the landlord to Neighborhood Code.

The grass is even longer now and has turned to seed. No weed ordinance sign has been put up. Neighborhood code was even at our house to look at their yard and some homes behind us that we turned in for huge piles of wet cardboard, old piles of trash, a big white van that never moves, tires and more tires piled around the white van. I have also noticed three to four large, able bodied men milling around this house. Once they were even playing horse shoes in their "meadow" as piles of trash sat unmoved. Note to self: Call on suspicious number of men milling around neighbors house.

The nice neighborhood code guy asked us if we knew who owned one of the houses that we were reporting. Apparently the owner is the president of our neighborhood association! Unbelievable! We would definitely consider his house low (very low) on the list of attractive historic neighborhood homes.

The renters are usually scary and some have even been on house arrest. This is also the house where I had to call because a toddler was waddling on the porch roof all alone in nothing but a diaper and little white socks. I called 911 as I listened to the toddler babble and lean over the edge of the roof looking down at me and laughing. It would have been a skull shattering drop had he fell. The police came and found the mother sound asleep in the house. I often feel like a neighborhood babysitter. Keeping my eye on children and adults around here who seem unable to take care of themselves. I often wonder about that little boy on the roof. Had I not been there at just the right time what would have happened to him? That same night the mother packed everything up and disappeared with the child. Apparently she was fearing the visit child protective services was going to be making to her home the next day.

The garbage issue has sent me over the edge. West Central Neighborhood Association is known for trying to turn our downtown neighborhood around. We want more single family homes in the neighborhoods and rentals are encouraged to keep with the historic look. I thought throwing away garbage is common sense?

When I found out that the president of our association owns some of the nastiest homes around here...preaching one thing and doing another. Well, lets just say it really makes me frustrated. Apparently the president can make some things happen for the better but lets his own properties stay in pitiful disrepair.

I talked to my friend who has been a part of the association for years. She said no one else has been willing to be the president as of yet. This guy is apparently the best they could get? I have not been a member of the association but would like to get more involved once I have more energy. Granted, calling the police and code enforcement keeps me busy enough.

Just today a neighbor lady at the long grass house called out to me asking if we had a way to copy papers. I told her I would copy them for her. She handed me two SSI papers. I copied them and when I gave them back to her she told me to watch my daughter closely because the guy in the middle apartment was selling cocaine and people have been coming night and day for buys. Lovely. Not surprising though.

We have had drugs in the house next to us for a long time. The landlord is a complete ass and could care less. She also told me they have very little hot water when the shower works. Her front door window is broken and he won't replace it. But, he does frequently ask her to show the front apartment for him. He says he will fix what she wants if she does so. I told her that was wrong and she said she knew that but feels desperate. Needless to say, I have more phone calls to make.

Here is our back yard. It looks interesting to see our yard right next to the grass from hell. I should have taken a photo where you can see both at the same time. I will have to do that next time.

Currently Joe is taking out the old fence that has been here since who knows when. Once he gets that done we have to get approval for a new fence and deck to go up. It is a pain to get approval and yet people who don't do anything to keep up the houses except the bare minimum seem to get away with everything. Most owners are more than happy to keep paying the fines rather than do the work needed to update the house. All this complaining is making my adrenals hurt real bad. ;)
Okay, enough on that. Maizie helped me position the path stones and carry all the plants to the porch.
She refused to shovel or touch the plants or the dirt. Instead she directed me on where to put them and kept saying, "Mom! Your hands are so dirty! I can't believe you are doing that!"
As I was busy planting I asked her to bring me the next plant. Apparently she was side tracked because I looked up to see her staring at something on the cement. I could not get her attention. What was she looking at? Little rocks. Maizie told me they were going to be a new collection of hers.
Luckily, she eventually lost interest and continued bringing me plants and watering for me. I have five more to plant. Maybe Maizie we will be willing to get her hands dirty tomorrow? Something tells me not to hold my breath.