Theme #2: Where I Live....

Michaelangelo and his park friend, Katy the Golden! It's funny to me, but not a total surprise what happened this morning on our walk.... I decided somehow this morning that I would explore the area in which I live...my house and the surrounding, what I see and move through each day...and how I feel about it. It is quite an important topic on my table, and so naturally I arrive at this theme... Then immediately at the beginning on the walk I knew that was the right topic and started snapping some scenes...

When we get to the park, I saw that the park ranger was there, and I saw her in the distance, bending over, picking something up....Michaelangelo and I make our way to where she was so I could say hi and talk to her about when in the year she actually starts using "round up" (she and I have talked about this before) and things of that nature...

The first thing out of her mouth was sharing the news that our pup friend "Katy" - whom we LOVE - was involved in a 'violent crime' in the very park we were standing in yesterday. Immediately I felt a rush of adrenaline, anxiety, call it what you will, scared for what else she would tell me!! Word in the park has it that Katy's dad was walking her at 7am and was approached and attacked by these two men! One of the men hit him in the face, knocking him to the ground, the other pulled out a six inch blade and was yelling "we want your money!!!! NOW!!!" Just then Katy the beautiful Golden jumps up from behind and clamps down on the crazy man's behind and started to go for the man's face! Katy's dad (whose name is escaping me right now, I always remember the dogs' names, tho! and they remember ours!!) pulled her off the man, and they ran away! THANK GOD, eh?? I'm so relieved that no further harm came to Katy or her nice dad! The police will apparently be all over the place now, but I haven't seen them just yet. I'm just taken aback and completely awed by this animal's saving his owners' life!! And the fact that we know them, and have been in this park almost every day since we have lived here. I'm always super wary and looking around to see who is around me, and how close...we definitely wait until the light of day to go to the park...I'm definitely going to go get myself a new mace, haven't carried one for a year or so now, but it might be time to get a new one...

My neighbhorhood has been a bit dodgy since I moved here, I just didn't realize until after I moved here about the goings-ons in my neighborhood. The park ranger also told me that the guys who attacked our friend had left two cases of Carona in the park, and also were smashing the bottles all throughout the park and leaving the jagged, sharp sides placed purposefully UP so that people and their dogs walking through the park would get cut...Michaelangleo had this happen before, had to have stitches because he walked right onto a piece of jagged glass before I could see it....

At least I got to see my park ranger feed this lovely little squirrel named Penny (!! and there are others she's named Nickle, Dime, Quarter!! which is even more hilarious since my mother used to call me Nickle, Dime, etc!!) right out of her hand, while I had to hold Michaelangelo back from his natural instict to eat said squirrel named Penny...

During this time of uncertainty about my house, where it is, how I am falling behind now because I am not working and can't afford it, I'm entertaining that more than likely, I will be relocating within 2011...

Before I can really move on, I have to say goodbye and finally let go, really be over it (my darling little house which I've put so much into and the fact that I'm losing it!!), and then I can move on. First I want to explore where I live, and what it's like for me.

What's it like where you live???