I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.--Martha Washington

The weirdest thing happened to me today. I was riding the aging Huffy northward on Penn Ave. and fully intended to visit my homeless buddy’s adobe (in the purest sense of the word) under the South St. bridge. The sky started dropping wet thingies on me, so I decided to skip counting his beers for one day and headed home. No sooner did I hit home when 911 dispatched a copper dude to the homeless dude’s open air bungalow on a report of a 10-45 (coroner type event). It turns out the regulars at the Curry Donut found the guy after he departed for hobo heaven (?). Here, I thought I was the only one checking on the guy. So, I missed out on my first dead dude pic. Darn!

There will be one less guy at Bilo to bug us for spare change. What a waste.

Here’s an interesting thought that was posted on the Blog today:

Comment: So the City is facing a Federal lawsuit. Wonderful. Not McG's fault this time, but, the city has been ordered to meet to dicuss it. A date is set and McG wants to change it because he has a public meeting about the paving of George St. ARE YOU JOKING?

Wasn't George St. paved less than 5 years ago? What is so important about this meeting? He'll only tell the 2 or 3 people that attend that it is progress as promised. Sorry that your street will be a mess and you will have no place to park for a few days. But hey vote for me, I'm repaving your recently paved street.

So what's more important, a Federal lawsuit or a meeting to push for votes?

McG has his priorities all messed up. How do people still think he is a good mayor?END

Yes, his priorities are a bit of a perpetual head-scratch. We could lose how much? Well, we better have an emergency meeting with council at a time and place that I alone will determine, but not when I have a self-centered meeting scheduled. And if council can’t make it, I’ll rake them over the hot coals of the printed press. That’s what’s important about the timing of the meeting. He gives them next to no notice and then he’ll criticize whoever doesn’t attend. It’s all politics. Right?

The lawsuit could end up costing us a lot of money, but in all honesty-it’s a joke. The chick wasn’t strong enough to pass the physical test. So? Do we want weak copper dudes and dudettes patrolling the city? She claims the physical fitness test is too geared toward upper body strength which men have more of than most women. So? Would she prefer that we lower the standards which could conceivably result in the disability or death of a cop that can’t hump a six foot wall, let alone fight off two or more idiots? Where would she be now if she responded to the recent four-one-one wrestling event at Mineral Springs rather than officer Duane? She’d be hospitalized and suing because she had no available back-up or something. She just wants the money. This suit is bunk!

I loved this snippet from the Voice story:

The mayor criticized Councilman Phil Latinski, who is on the civil service commission, for his handling of the physical exam and the financial trouble the city finds itself as a result.

Just couldn’t help himself. That’s payback for Phil’s going public with the fact that our free recycling bins promised to be coming soon are not actually free as of yet. Mayor good/Phil bad.

Here’s another BLOG post that stole some of my thunder:

Comment: I see McStup*d thinks that if the city loses the federal lawsuit,it will cause us taxpayers big headaches.I fiqure it will cost in the $450,000.00 neighborhood,if we lose. Now my question is "Why will this be such a big headache"? I mean their was no headache when we shelled out $600,000.00 for the call center payment,no headache for the $407,000.00 payment for the steam heat demolition,and no apparent headache(unless it is in the budget) for the $200,000.00 payment due in june for the call center again. So ,why will this one break our backs and all the others that Mcstup*d caused no problem?END

It’s an emergency because, it’s election time! Seven years of money going down into the hole, among man other projects is supposed to be forgotten about by now. Remember kiddies, we’re voters. We are stupid, ugly, ignorant and have very short memories. This lawsuit is nothing short of a calamity coming so close to an election and our very own Captain McJohnny-on-the-spot is poised and ready to save the day. He paved your alley, he got a shot in on Phil and he’s ready to do battle with the chick with the eight inch biceps. My hero. Or somebody’s?

Judging from the laughable paving going on at the last possible minute, our fearless ‘leader’ will latch onto anything that comes along between now and May 20th to make us forget the abject decreptitude that Wilkes-Barre has become under his extremely costly watch. Furthermore, this case will not come to trial before the primary, if ever at all. He’ll grandstand for a few days, generate some positive press and then we won’t hear about this case until it’s settled out of court months and months from now. His proclivity toward protracted legal wrangling usually applies to city employee’s unions only.

Oh Christ! Another clutter clean-up is due any day now. There’s no doubt that being able to turn your curb lawn into a landfill for only twenty bucks is a good value. But, I absolutely abhor what the neighborhood looks like as the neighbors pile their no longer needed items, while the folks from some other neighborhoods cruise our streets and dig through the piles of assorted and broken bric-a-brac. I’m embarrassed by what our streets look like and I’m embarrassed watching folks pile out of their dented and primer covered pick-up trucks and get overly excited about my broken picture frame. I can’t sit on the front porch and take this in anymore. It’s awful.

I do think that two clutter events per year is over doing it in a quest for votes and stretching our DPW manpower way too thin. In my opinion, once a year would do just fine. If I was put in charge, I’d make it a bi-annual event. If you’ve too much clutter for that schedule, hump it up to the landfill yourself. Actually, we might be forced to do it every other year after we oust the current regime. I mean would you rather clutter clean-ups or regularly scheduled infrastructure repairs that improve the image of the city and the quality of life for those that live here and one day-those that visit here?

Whatever. Wifey wants a permit and she actually has enough junk to make a pile, but I can’t wait until the piles are no more. I hate this.

Is it acceptable that folks are blocking the sidewalks with their junk? No biggie, just step into the busy street!

I read that story in the Leader about the tree-trimming complaints in S. Wilkes-Barre and I have to tell ya’, I’ve heard it all before on the west side. The communities on the other side of the river have had their neighborhood trees turned into hapless looking wishbones for at least the past two summers. It’s Wilkes-Barre’s turn. I love the quote from the foreman in charge of the trimming though:

That's the problem, Gautsch said. "People aren't acclimated to the aesthetic."

Acclimated to the aesthetic? This dude would be the perfect prototype spokesman for some self-absorbed politico. What he offered us was the polished version of “Sure it looks like sh*t, but you’ll get used to it.”

Now shut up and pay your taxes.

A guy in Scranton robbed a bank and used a cab as his getaway car? Does he get time off his sentence for creativity?

An e-mail snippet:

******Yes, Barrett will be awesome on council - finally someone with enough gray matter to understand what the hell is going on . If we only had 6 more running with half of his intelligence, I'd be thrilled.******

An e-mail friend turned me on to an interesting idea. Since Spring has finally sprung and election yard signs are sprouting everywhere, wouldn’t it be interesting to see which contenders for elected office within the city the important city figures support in the upcoming primary. I know where a few of the elite types live, so we’ll just see what we can see. Our police chief’s abode was on the way home, so I got a pic (off center) of two yard signs of city council hopefuls that he is apparently endorsing. Make of that what you will.

Hey, what was the cut-off date for the city to take delivery of the new recycling vehicles or lose the state grant? Wasn’t it May 4th? Are we getting the vehicles? Did we file for yet another extension on that grant? What’s the gig man?

And what’s up with the Holeplex vs. Holeplex II stand-off? The original Holeplex will never progress based on the fact that the city never even rectified the lawsuits that stopped the construction fifteen months ago. We’re told that we need the Redevelopment Authority revived if Holeplex II is to have any hope of moving forward, but so far the mayor has steadfastly refused to allow that to happen. The message here is loud and clear. If the mayor can’t claim the credit for building it, he refuses to allow anyone else to get it built. What is up with that? Supposedly, 42,000 people want to see it built, but one man is blocking it’s development because he won’t get the public atta-boy. If he’d spend less time being the diabolically brilliant (?) political adversary and more time honestly working for the ultimate good of the city’s residents, we might have a grand opening date on our 2004 city calendars. It’ll never happen. At least, not on his watch.

After May 20th passes and the mayor becomes a bitter lame duck, city council had better be on a studious twenty-four guard for one man financial martyrdom operations. Personal aggrandizement seems to be more important to him than the future of the city and it’s residents.

Enjoy your holiday weekend and get ready for what should be a rapid escalation of the mayoral campaign.

Each and every time I see an Emergency Management vehicle in this city, I can’t help but to first crack-up and then kinda shake my head in disgust. What folly!

The Iraq campaign has pretty much ended and the endless stream of dramatic videos clips from the war are drying up, but remember that the folded flags are still being delivered to grieving moms and widows all over this country.

Forget this “Protest the war/support the troops” balderdash. Support your country and protest the totalitarian regimes that support terrorism.

Get this, I’ve two days off in a row! Whoopee!

Later.