Indiana just recently, headed by Governor Mike Pence who signed into law this year of the Lord 2015, the RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT which allows any business owner, based on their own religious views to eject or prohibit anyone they do not want in their stores and such from entering all based on that customers sexuality most of all but also included would be and will be NO JEWS, NO CATHOLICS, etc.....and in the end, I think it horrific and wonderful.

NOW, the people who are closeted bigots will have to "COME OUT" and thereby lose every dollar and cent from people who are against bigotry including people who have family or friends who are gay and the gay dollar alone, quite a powerful money group most people are aware. So, let their business go down, as it were. I cannot wait to be aware I'm not welcome. Why would I ever give my money to someone who secretly hates me? I don't want to give them any money of mine.

So for all those soon to be bashed and cut out, just remember the GOOD behind this farce of a law.

And don't forget this will generate a lot of money for lawyers and the government via court costs. They will be the big winners above all others. Yay Them! NOT!

Time will tell, I will see you there. Not in Indiana, but don't hate the Hoosiers...most or many hate the law and don't like they are now targeted by a law they didn't understand nor support perhaps and they are yelling it loud. So...we shall like I said, see how it works out.

JKS

We Are Beset Abound By Beasts That Growl

I have lost my step-father of 21 years and known much longer into my young teen years before he and my Mother married at my behest and begging so as to not have to experience she and my real Father reconciling once again or ever again as it were.

Instead, I saw a man, not too keen on the kids part of the package, but loving her enough to change himself enough to allow us into his circle.

Slowly and yet surely, he became closer and closer.

His own children always seemed to resent the re-marriage and the involvement his new wife's children had in their lives. We would stay there from time to time but we didn't break rules. They broke rules unfortunately and as much as I would've like to see them given enough room to fail, it was decided when they failed to a high degree in Mom and her husband's mind they had to move out. This created resentment as WE, the children of the new wife seemed to always be able to stay and I don't know if they understood we followed the rules and didn't rock the boat at all if possible.

Regardless, it was sad as I know how much my Pop, Jim, I called him Pop or Dad sometimes after my own father died 5 years ago telling him he was stuck with it cuz he was all I had left. He just smiled.

He was never one to go too far out of his way to be sure YOU were comfortable. He didn't feel it was his job to do so. He felt you should feel okay by your own self and not need someone from the outside to let you know you are okay. It's called Ego Stroking and he didn't require to give it often.

He was a very private man but we talked quite a bit about science, books, physics, you name it. We loved to talk as we would smoke occasionally. There were times where I could barely follow the convo but it was nice to have the time with him.

Here lately, he was slowly losing weight and just didn't look well but refused to go to a doctor. Mom said the night before he died one of his feet was purplish in color and his face red. If I had known that I could've forced him into care and caught the Aortic Aneurism that was just waiting for another 12 hours while he was Kroger's Grocery parking lot.

I cannot believe what a blow this has been and nothing was prepared. I pushed for it with both of them to at least get burial costs covered and a little more just for bills and such but they didn't listen.
I dunno what we're going to do as we were to move into a new apartment in the same complex, something long overdue and the least mgmt could do for what we've endured.

I will miss you Jim. I loved you for who you were and required nothing but you constant adoration of my Mother which you offered freely. You are a great sould, a good soldier and a good man.

I will miss you every day and I will watch over your girls as best I can.

Goodbye Jim, see you in time I guess.

Your stepson/son Joey.

The Neglected Part I

It never ceases to amaze me how parents and other adults can treat or fail to care for children either in their charge or living near them. Too many times I hear the words, "Boy, it sounds like hell is breaking out in that apartment" and I ask the question, "Did you call the police or children's services?" and they reply, "Well....no, I would hate to see the kids taken away".

Time and again I find myself shocked at what people will allow to go on around them all in the name of minding their own business. Also, a factor I guess would include those who aren't doing all the right things hate to point the finger lest it be pointed back at them. Regardless, it is a shame what the children of our world must endure. It's a wonder they ever grow up to be anything more than what their parents show them. I know in a lot of cases they turn out alright and find a way to use their childhood horrors as badges of honor, much in the way I have, but there are those others who don't make it or don't come out 'on top'.

We see it on the news everyday, children killing children, and many will propose banning violence in video games or movies, less sexualized television, V-chips, ratings systems, etc. All of these are a smoke screen whether relevant or not. The smoke screen is that somehow if there are less violent video games it will reduce violence in children but the 'experts' fail to realize just how much violence there is in these children's lives, NOT in some fantasy game that many of them play to escape the cold reality of what kind of damage Mom and Dad can do. Here is an excerpt from the page where I stole the graphic above from.

By Colleen Heild - Journal Investigative Reporter

He was an ex-con convicted of shooting his wife and using his two young sons as a shield during a police standoff. But after his release from prison in 1990, the state of New Mexico deemed him fit to care for his six children. Within three years, he was arrested for raping his 5-year-old daughter. An investigation revealed she also had been molested by a baby sitter and several of her older brothers.

* * *

Last October, an angry Ruben Duran took his 2-year-old son outdoors to change his diaper. Duran two years earlier had come to the attention of Child Protective Services for mistreating his other children. While hosing off the boy's bottom that day, he allegedly inserted the garden hose into the child's rectum and let the water run. The boy died two days later. His father was charged with child abuse resulting in death.
* * *

I read this and I am immediately disgusted as I am sure you were. These stories are all around us on a daily basis. These are your neighbors, your families and friends, these are NOT some strange monsters that live out in the middle of nowhere. How many of the children we hear about who are killed or abused were in apartments or other dwellings where help was just on the other side of the wall in the form of neighbors who refused to 'stick their nose in other people's business' or 'just hate to see the kids get taken away'. I tell my tenants "If you fear for a child's safety, you call the police or children's services people. In most cases, they come and investigate and offer services or other kinds of help to parents in need of help. In serious cases, there might be a need for intervention, there might be a call for the children to be placed elsewhere temporarily or even long-term. God forbid I don't report something and a child is killed or hurt. God forbid I do nothing". I don't know if people believe me, I hope they will. But, all I can do is try, I cannot force them. Isn't it sad that I have to fight people to get them to do the right thing?

I called this article Part I as I intended on speaking about some of my families but, instead, I will leave this as an overview for the following stories I might tell regarding this matter. I have several stories ready and will be publishing soon. After that, I would rather I had nothing to say but I know the world will not allow that and I am sure there will be more for me to say.

Let's just hope it helps.

The Hoarding Part I

FORWARD

The title of the above book is entirely appropriate for the posts to come in this blog I've created. There is nothing more shocking than what the average human is capable of when pushed to their limits either by internal or external forces.

I am a resident property manager for a low/middle income apartment complex in a rural small town of Ohio. Although surrounded by expensive property and the best school in the state, here we sit in the middle of it all. I've done my best to better the complex and remove the trouble and trash I found when I came here but it's hard work and there is always more to do. In this position, I run into just about every type of person there is. From the bottom to beneath the bottom, I've met them and I intend to share the stories and experiences I go through on a common basis.

I really wish sometimes I had no idea the things I'm about to tell and in some cases (if I ever learn how to use Hello and the other crap to upload pics to my blog) pictures of the example of true life people and the horrors they call life.

We will start lite and begin with the people I like to call "The Hoarders".

For some psychological reason, some people either by compulsion or sheer laziness, feel a bizarre need to fill their homes with endless amount of belongings and/or trash. You would be shocked to know just who these people are. They are your neighbors, your preachers, your teachers, they can be anyone and they live in a way that most of us couldn't tolerate for more than an hour much less than daily, weekly and a lifetime.

Apartment #614 - I met this specific couple as they happened to live in my building. The man often was dressed in a nice suit and happened to be a deacon in his church. He was always polite and pleasant. I had less dealings with his wife but she too was pleasant whenever we spoke.

I always noticed while I was walking my dog that they had quite a few boxes in their small bedroom because they had no curtain up and the boxes could be seen clearly from outside even though on an upper floor. I never gave it much thought since many people moved from houses and do not have a lot of space. It wasn't until the man living there offered to sell me a television he had. I was interested and he invited me to come take a look at the item.

Before I continue, I must preempt by saying, "If your landlord, even a nice one, was coming to your home, wouldn't you straighten the house up a little?" I would.

I knocked on the door with my partner at my side. Little did I know that on the other side of this door was a horror of which is seldom seen in what should be considered a home. (Damn, I wish I had taken pictures!!)

I heard the words, "Come in" shouted from behind the door. I opened the door was immediately taken aback. My eyes tried to focus on something that resembled a living space but I couldn't find anything. I was hit with the smell of cat litter, cat shit and cat urine.

I looked down and saw three big gray square tubs. They looked like super-sized litter boxes. There were three. In the first two, they were entirely full of litter dusted cat turds. In the third, litter and a few turds. At once I understood what they were doing. Instead of cleaning and emptying the litter box appropriately, they would just buy a new box to place all the clumps and turds into. As if that weren't lazy in itself, they just left the turds in the box, not even with a cover on them. This was MONTHS worth of cat shit. That wasn't the worst part of it though. The cat shit and cat litter was not only in the box. It had found it's way all over the surrounding carpet much of it ground in. I barely knew where to step without being contaminated by it.

Picture this. This is two feet from their living room door between what were meant to be a dining area and living room. It was basically right in the middle of everything. They hadn't even had the good sense to place it in a corner.

At this point I was at a loss for words and didn't know what to do. The landlord in me was about to flip out and evict these people without recourse. At the same time, I was 'off the clock' and considered a 'visitor', so I didn't jump on the guy.

He was in the corner sitting at a computer desk playing on the internet I assumed. He welcomed us with a smile as if he wasn't sitting in such a mess. The cat shit was only the beginning. I looked over what should have been a living room and every single surface was covered with something. There was clothing, newspapers, trash, every single spot I looked at. In the middle of the living 'area' was a coffee table. The table appeared to be the main eating area for the couple and it was very plain to see. The table was covered with leftover food, plates and drinking cups. But it was so much more than that simple. There were STACKS of plate and pizza boxes, etc. It looked as if they just bought new dinnerware when they had dirtied the one before it and kept doing it.

It must've been plain that I was scoping the damages and he spoke up saying, "We will have all of this cleaned up when we move at the end of the month", thus saving me from evicting him. I responded, "I know you will because this is a lot to clean up".

As if this weren't enough, he went ahead with showing me the TV which just happened to be in the master bedroom. It was a wreck with boxes and piles of clothing everywhere without a space to spare. We had to climb over piles just to get to the TV. It wasn't a good TV and I just wasn't interested. I told him, "It's not big enough for what I want. Thanks for showing it to me though" and then I made my way out of the room quickly with my partner almost running towards the door. I remarked, "Man, I sure hope you don't leave this mess here when you leave". He again assured me he wouldn't.

Me and Rick (my partner) were out of there fast but not before I peeked into the kitchen over my shoulder as I exited. It was disgusting with dishes piled a foot high on the counter. I could only imagine what the rest looked like and was half glad I didn't know for these scenes would stick with me for some time.

Rick and I looked at each other as soon as we walked out with amazement on both our faces. We hurriedly ran down the stairs and into our own apartment and immediately we started talking about what we had just seen. Both of us were absolutely shocked that two people could live in such a place without dying from disease, depression or both. We just didn't understand how and why people would allow such a thing to happen in their midst. It makes no sense at all. How could people work and come home to something like that as a home without suffering severe depression and constant illnesses. There was no way either of them could come home and enjoy their home or each other in that mess. In one way I feel sorry for them that they could allow it to become that bad or that they would be satisfied with it, in another way I feel they get what they deserve in the sense they did nothing to help it be better and one last feeling in the possibility it effected them not in the least. Perhaps they were on a different plane of perspective and such cleanliness ideas were not important to them. Who could ever know?

The people DID move out at the end of the month and just as they said they would, the mess was gone upon vacating. It wasn't spotless and I had to put new carpet in because the new tenants had cat allergies. Other than that it was as if they had never been there.

It turns out as a side note that this couple, as nice as they were and as filthy as they were, were also being investigate by the local police force for possible theft and other fraud and con jobs. I didn't get to the bottom of just what they were have supposed to have done but it wouldn't surprise me.

What a slice of life and it was just the first of many more to come in my following reports on the Apartment Dwelling Tribe of people in SouthWest Ohio. I look forward to your comments. I also plan to include pictures in future posts whenever the occasion arises.

End.