Like a Soap Opera

I already knew I was living in an interesting neighborhood. Now that the weather is warmer, I'm out on my balcony quite a bit, taking in the sun, watching the world go by. And go by it does...here are the latest highlights...

- The new neighbor has officially moved in today. The first visit by police was tonight...sigh...not her fault though, as she was quick to tell me shortly after I went down to introduce myself. When I saw her with her kids on the weekend, my intuition told me there would be a story there...white single mama, with two little mixed race kids, and a white boyfriend, living on the dark side...I was right. Her black babydaddy is not permitted unsupervised contact with the wee ones, and he showed up at their school today. Enter police.

- Was out eating my supper on the balcony tonight when I heard footsteps come into the parking lot, shuffling. Stormy tuned in first. So I glanced down, and there was another neighbor, one I have yet to meet, stumbling across the parking lot. He took aim on his stairwell, but missed, and slammed into the outside of the railing. I hollered out to him to see if he was okay...I'm not quite sure what he said, as it was unintelligible. He crawled around to the steps, fell down on them for a bit, so I hollered out again, asking him if he was okay...more mumbling. He then got up and tried the steps again, unsuccessfully. About the 4th try, he finally got up to the top and slammed into the door. Where he stayed, for about 5 minutes. I thought maybe he passed out or something, but he was probably trying to remember what he did with his keys. He managed to let himself into the building, and made quite a staggering pass through the hall. There are two large windows that face me, that are in the common hallway for the apartments in that section of the house. I didn't hear a thud, so I guess he made it into his apartment okay after that. This all went down while little mama was sitting in the cop car two cars away...

Bullets have been flying all around Dartmouth these past weeks. I am considering investing in a bulletproof vest, but from the sound of things, their aim hasn't been that great. There is an invincible organized crime thug who was shot twice this winter/spring and is still walking around. He got shot again on Friday night...it seems like every other day there is yet another story of police finding bullet holes in houses, cars, etc. There have been shootouts in broad daylight, on major city streets, shootings behind the mall, stabbings down at the ferry terminal where I catch the ferry (which is just down the street), armed robberies, you name it. All in the past month or so. And all in Dartmouth. Hardly a damned thing happening in Halifax. I guess that's why people call Dartmouth "the dark side"...it has very little to do with the larger population of African Canadians (which was why I thought Dartmouth had that nickname), and more to do with the crime that's going on. Mr Thug is white.

Saw an intersting gal at Tim Horton's this weekend. She was about 4 feet tall, about 90 years old, wearing a piece of tartan fabric - at first I thought it was a kilt, but when I looked, it resembled a piece of tartan just wrapped around her, and she was bare legged in flip flops. That was cute enough, but to top this outfit was a pair of bunny ears...

Saw another guy standing in the middle of the Tim Horton's parking lot a few weeks back. He was also ancient, probably 90 himself, standing there hugging a HUGE remote control car. The car was about 3 feet long, and he could barely wrap his arms around it. I'm not sure why he was standing in the middle of the parking lot. He didn't have a coffee or anything...not that he could carry it, as the car would have to be put down...

Walked home from the ferry terminal today through the park in the beeeeaaaautiful weather we had today - 29C...in April!!! Of course, that wasn't without it's charm...two fellas down at the shore's edge, a mere 20 feet away, shooting up under a tree. Nice.

Life is like a soap opera here in Dartmouth Cove...