Carey’s Day March 23rd

Sometimes I feel like my life is one continuous Coast to Coast show. Thursday proved it.

I headed to my rental in Euclid to meet a prospective tenant. The interview went OK but there were a few areas of concern.  I was not completely at peace. After the meeting I left for a bite to eat. During the drive to get food I called a few people and asked their opinion. Ruth said pray about it, Eliot the same and Paul said go with your gut feeling.

I accidentally passed the entrance to the restaurant so took the street after it and thought I would just loop around. I mindlessly drove the length of the street while missing a few side streets that would have led back to the place I wanted to go. As I went to turn around I spotted a restaurant I never been to before. So instead of my first choice I decided to get something to eat there.

I asked the man what do you have cheap, I just want a snack. He recommended something and I said fine that’s what I want. Right now I will omit the name of the restaurant as this story is still unfolding. He asked how my day was going. I replied been real busy at my rental cleaning and painting it. OH yeah, well I am looking for a place. With that I made a more formal introduction and gave him my contact info. He turned out to be the owner. I said I believe in divine connections and this seems like one. He agreed. We made tentative plans to meet later.

I may as well add this bit to my story though it has little to do with it. As I approached the parking lot where my van was a car pulled in and parked next to it. Out came a boy and his mother. For what reason I am not sure but the boy stopped and just stared at the back of my van. He looked mesmerized and so solemn. Not the look a little boy should have. I conjectured it must be the Trump bumper sticker. I am sure by now you guessed the color of the boy and no - it’s not yellow or white. His mom then got out and as I neared my van I said loudly you like Trump? Trump’s great isn’t he? The mom just laughed and laughed as she walked away. The boy never changed his expression. Weird.

So back to the rental to continue working. I wrapped things up about 7 not paying much attention to the constant blaring of sirens. Maybe I got a bit hardened who knows. Monday while working on the same house I look out the window and noticed my neighbor outside peering down the street. I said what’s up? Look! OH that’s why the sirens. Cops were surrounding a house with guns drawn. I go back to painting.

Anyway… back to Thursday. I leave and cop after cop car go zooming past me and then a hook and ladder screams by. That’s when I noticed that’s the street my other rental is on. I start thinking wonder if it is my rental… it could be my rental… hey it is my rental what the hey is going on? The street was blocked so I pulled in a neighbors drive to look and sure enough there are cops with guns drawn leaning up against my house. Another patrol car skids to a stop; a policeman jumps out with his assault rifle and loads it on the run. Instead of sticking around I decide to go home to eat, big deal, swat, police surrounding my house, guns and weapons drawn, I’ll watch the news, I am going to eat, hmm maybe I am hardened.

That was about 7:15 pm, at 9pm I return to my rental that I was painting but not before passing by my other rental house. A huge van marked mobile crime unit or something like that along side of multiple cruisers with lights flashing were still blockading the street.

I leave the scene. My cell rings it is the owner of the restaurant. Hello are you at the house? I am pulling in right now. OK I see you. Talk about timing, he was right behind me, hmmmm!

He looks at the house, loves it and is anxious to move in. After he left the neighbor next door comes out and asks hey is that your house being surrounded on the street over? We thought they got Shawn. NO, Shawn is in Columbus but I will be finding out shortly what is happening, I am heading over there. I proceed to tell my neighbor about the man I just met and whom I may rent the house to. He said really, I know that guy. His daughter was excited and said yay Dad will have a friend living next door. Another hummina moment.

Paul then drops by for a visit. I said let’s take a ride and see what is going on. We had to park down the street and walk. I received clearance from the cops so I could get to my house. I pound on the door. My tenant just about poops himself as he thought it was the cops. He tells me about 7:15 or so he just stepped out of the shower when he heard repeated BANGS, about 8 gun shots in total. That’s all he knows.

Thank God my tenant is safe but my neighbor well he may be dead. He is such an excellent neighbor always keeping an eye on my house and informing me whenever he sees something out of the ordinary. Let’s pray he survives.

I will update this as I find out more. Until then….

Gotta Go-Go!

Carey

At the same time the shooting in Euclid happened a shooting occurred in Beachwood. I watched the news but didn’t see any reporting of the incident in Euclid but all channels had the Beachwood story. Guess which is the upscale city?

 http://www.wkyc.com/news/crime/one-injured-after-shooting-near-beachwood-place/425161701

http://www.cleveland19.com/story/34986604/2-hospitalized-after-euclid-shootout

After 8 years of the vilest US president ever our streets in America are cesspools of violent Godless thugs. Sad!

Update 3-25-17

OK I received conflicting updates on the shooting incident and my weird Thursday sort of spilled over into Friday.

First the update:

The lady across the street said when she heard the shooting she got on the floor but her neighbor watched it go down. This is the report I received second hand. XXX (the neighbor next door to my rental) was shooting as he was backing up into his house and then slammed the door. It seemed as if he was almost firing at people fleeing six doors down. She thinks he was shooting at his friend. XXX is OK but he killed one and two others are critically hurt.

But my tenant told me: XXX was killed along with one other and another was seriously wounded. The police are looking for two suspects who fled.

That’s all I have.

One other interesting tidbit concerning yesterday’s shootings in Euclid and Beachwood. Both occurred at almost the same time and the victim in Beachwood is from Euclid.

So how did my Friday go?  OK except for a Dollar General incident.

 I was leisurely shopping, don’t most people when at Dollar General? I was in the snack aisle. I was going past the next aisle when I spotted a lady stuffing candy in her purse. I busted her and made sure she knew it. I said Hey! She gave me a smug look and showed me a bag of candy as if to say it’s only this. I said you’re stealing? She replied this doesn’t concern you.

The back and forth then went like this: Sure this concerns me. Move along it doesn’t. Sure it does. Mind your own business. Each reply from both of us got louder.

She then removed the bag and said now get away from me and mind your own business. At this point the manager came over to see what is going on. I said loudly this woman is stealing. I put it back and this is none of his business. Get away from me before I thump you. You stealing and now threating me? Are you? So what - this does not concern you. You bet it concerns me, your stealing affects me. Wait till you step outside I am going to beat your white ass! OH so now it’s a white and black issue, well it isn’t, it’s a right and wrong issue.

By now we were really loud, yelling loud. I went to the register and she was still jawing and said again I am waiting for you to step outside. And she did, she stood outside the door waiting.

The managers thanked me though I was a bit upset at them that they didn’t do more since I was threatened in their store. Another worker explained what could we do, we could be charged since she put the stuff back, we couldn’t hold her. I excused myself from the line and went to the back of the store to call the police.

I explained to the dispatcher what was going on and that they should send a car because I have an attitude, a real bad attitude and if I step outside there will be an altercation as I am going to defend myself, understand I will defend myself.

Hey a woman is a woman until she acts like a man then she is my equal and I will take her out as I would take out any man that violates my personal space or causes bodily harm. Period.

Anyway back to the register. I repeated to the cashier my white ass, I am so tired of this racist crap, this has nothing to do with black vs. white. The cashier who was black said I agree this race card has been over played.

One manager went outside, came back in and said she left. I was thanked again.

After my blood pressure dropped I laughed thinking about that woman. Here is a woman about the age of 35 or so with a shopping cart filled and yet she is stuffing candy into her purse. CANDY! Kids steal candy, from a grown woman, CANDY, this is nuts.

Obama should feel proud.

Welcome to the Badlands of Cleveland.

I was on my way to Carnegie and instead of taking E.55th I decided on taking the E. 72nd exit to roads that pointed in that direction. GPS – no, inner compass – of course.

Man talk about taking a drive on the wild side. This is the part of Cleveland that is not all glammed up. I remember most of Clevo looking like this back in the day, it made me feel like popping open a can of warm POC. You from Cleveland know what I mean.

Forget about Aleppo what about these neighborhoods?
I saw a minimart that had a sign that said OPEN 7 DAYS – CLOSED THE REST, not bad open 7 days a year. The playground had barbwire around it, not sure if that was to keep the animals out or in? The only thing white was the snow and even that was an off-gray. I thought the artwork/graffiti was neat until I realized it wasn’t artwork but police outlines of victims’ bodies.
Maybe Lebron needs to dribble a ball down these alleys.

I did receive some stares and one car was on my bumper at every light blowing his horn and glaring at me. Do you think it was the Trump bumper sticker displayed on my car or am I being paranoid?

I drive fast to begin with but in certain areas it gives me a license to do my thing, after all does anyone really follow all laws in the underbelly of any city? One car was playing catch up with me; I caught him in my rear view mirror. I thought this could be interesting. Instead he swerved around me and out of sight. It was a white guy, prim n proper in a nice car. Either a probation officer or someone that strayed of the main and found himself cruising the forgotten.

In all it was very scenic. Boarded up buildings, run down houses. So how about taking a drive on the wild side, just call, I'm ready but I'm also driving.

Gotta Go-Go!
Carey

Gee, was this really made for my blog?
Sometimes the dim has to be shown so the light is even brighter.
I guess.

Cook Forest / Clear Creek Pennsylvania

Hey Gang,
Instead of writing an in depth review as I normally do I will instead let the photos speak about the trip.

In short will say this.... I avoided the toll roads to save some cash but in turn I didn't save time. Rt. 422 which is the old main route towards where I wanted to head is a direct road but once entering Warren it is nonstop traffic lights one after another. This cost us so much time.

We could have jumped on 80 once in Pa. but I was adamant on saving the change so instead took Rt. 280 which is hilly and slow especially in a 5,000 pound Purple People Greeter machine. Yes the scenery was beautiful but it delayed us and well scared my passengers who may not want to be mentioned by name in case they have to be summoned to court as a witness to my Mario Andretti driving.

The Go-Go Bus crawls up any kind of grade but coming down LOOK OUT! I had to blow past a slow driving car on a double yellow around a curve because my brakes were screaming Hey man we be smoking! Yes I can handle the rolling  barge like a slot car but stopping well now drop the anchor, slam the brakes and pray. I told them please relax would you! They replied how can we when you are saying oh no this is bad, I can't stop, I may run over this car. Gee they didn't have to listen to me.

In summary.... the weather was terrific, the full moon at night light up the campground where flashlights weren't needed and the scenery was gorgeous.

A quick shout out to Beth and Jeff that I met at the campground who restored a cute little "62 Shasta. I told them I wanted to hug their lil trailer. Earl the Indian and his friends. Chris and Red who run a variety store. And all the others who smiled and gave a thumbs up, life is beautiful and yes I have a friend in Pennsylvania, um make that friends.

Gotta Go-Go!
Carey

Homewood Bound Conclusion

I wrote about a lot of things but now I will sum up the Homewood Heritage Days Festival.

Many times a festival is rated by how big it is which is not always accurate. What Homewood may have lacked in size was more than made up with what it did have.

The festival had a pancake breakfast, crafts booth inside, a running model railroad, a roaming juggler who kept dropping her pins, wagon rides pulled by Clydesdale horses, a children’s area with barrel train rides, face painting, a caricature artist, a magician, a period encampment with a black smith, a car cruise, food vendors, entertainment with a DJ and different musical acts.

I have been to many festivals with the entertainment geared specifically towards the demographics of the area. Not in Homewood. The bands were varied and included a country band El Dorado, a doo wop band The Wee Jams, a rock band The Sensations and something totally different Ibeji Drum Ensemble. All top notch, what great entertainment.

OH I almost forgot about yours truly who took part in the Heritage Cruise In and had a successful book signing.

I like to tip my hat to Alan the Chairman of the festival and Homewood the little community with a big heart for a wonderful festival. Homewood is a hidden gem that has so much potential.

Lastly I like to say hi to Sylvia who bought my book and said if I am ever in Arizona look her up, the gentleman at the Kettle Korn stand for giving me a large bag of popcorn, PJ Favorite who left the festival and came back in his custom 1985 Dodge Caravan just to show me and I can’t forget about the gentleman who I forgot his name of Mulefactory a Bluegrass band. We talked at length about many things.

He hosts at the Homewood United Methodist Church the HUM Church Music Winter Gospel Concert Series and if I heard correctly it is Bluegrass.
It’s held the first Saturday of October through April except January. Doors open at 6 for desserts & fellowship followed by music 7. And it’s free!
If that ain’t good enough he also gives stringed instrument lessons the 1st & 3rd Thursdays of the month at 5-8pm at Homewood United Methodist Church. And this is also free!

That’s all, maybe I’ll see you at the HUM Winter Concert.

Gotta Go-Go!
Carey

http://thesensationslive.com/audio-video/

http://weejams.com/songs/WeeJams-ComeGoWithMe07142014.mp3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxHHK5mOJyU

Homewood Bound 3

So where were we…











Ah yes Sunday at the Homewood Heritage Days Festival.
As I mentioned Sunday was livelier. Maybe both days were but since I slept it seemed that way to me. I ran into Linda again, well not really ran into but you know what I mean. I met Linda Saturday. She has dreams of opening up a book store in Homewood. We made tentative plans for me to do a book signing when the doors do open.

When I saw Linda on Sunday she was at the church booth serving soup, coffee and apple dumplings. I walked in and told them I wanted to buy a spoon. Linda said you can take one. I said well taking a spoon from a church isn’t good would you take a dime? Oh just take a spoon. Would you like some soup? OH I hate soup. Well I was going to give you some to try it. In that case I am going to eat soup.

Linda was proud of the soup. The church pitches in a few days before to make the homemade vegetable soup with meat in it. Is that still vegetable soup if it has meat in it? I don’t know but this I do know, I hated the soup but it was delicious. Hey I can tell if something is good even if I don’t like it. I ate the whole bowl so that tells you something.

The end of part 3

Homewood Bound 2

Sunday was far more eventful. Some of it had to do with the sleep I got. Interrupted but I slept about 9 hours or more. I should have had my table set up by at least 10 am but I was in no hurry. I freshened myself up at the sink in the fire department then I was off to find a church. There is only one church close by and that is the Homewood United Methodist right by Buttermilk Falls. The church had a booth at the festival serving homemade vegetable soup and apple dumplings.


I took the shortcut across the tracks and down a path close to the falls. It was barely after 11 am but the church doors were locked. I walked to the back of the church where there was people coming out with containers of food. They asked if I was hungry. I said no I was coming for church. Well service was from 9:30 to 10:30, we like to start early. Shucks. So I took a walk to the falls, snapped some photos and started walking back to the festival.

On the tracks coming towards me was a man. He asked how do you get to the falls? We introduced ourselves and had a nice conversation right on the tracks. I guess you can say our conversation never got off track. His name was Glen a Sargent with the police dept. who is now retired but is still active. Glen is a Christian so we sort of had church right there. He has some story.

Glen has seen so much in his years as a cop. Horrible things. Glen said what is going on with the police today is terrible. No people skills. He thinks he can teach police today how to diffuse a situation. We swapped stories back and forth. He also said how sad it is today. Years ago if a boy broke a window you would tell him I better see you in church on Sunday or else. They would attend and you made a friend. Or you would make them clean the windows at church but not today, you can’t tell someone to go to church or have a kid clean windows because of the child labor laws.

Glen also did some writing for the TV series Knight Rider and hopes to write a book someday.

The end of part two.

Homewood Bound 1

Well my plans of arriving in Homewood, Pa. by 8 pm Friday was foolish. I should know myself by now. I left a bit after 4 am and arrived at my destination by 6:15 am with the help of Philip.

Who is Philip? I didn’t quite remember where Homewood was so I went to Beaver Falls. The first gas station I saw I pulled in to ask for direction. Just as I did another car was doing the same. I get out and approach this man’s car, he gets out also. He started first, what year is your van? I told him and then asked for directions. You're not from around here. Nope. And you don't have GPS. Nope. Well go down a few lights and take a left when you see… ah you're not going to find it, follow me. With that he took off and I followed. He got me right to where I should be, the fire station and what’s even better? As I pulled in a man was unlocking the door and that was my contact, Alan. Perfect-o timing. Thanks again Philip.

Saturday the book signing was slow made even slower by the hour of sleep I had. I only slept from 6:30 am till 7:30 am because the breakfast was at 8 am. I was set up in the fire station greeting people coming in for the all you can eat pancake breakfast and sausage. Hardly anyone looked interested. There were two other reasons for the sort of low turnout. The weather threatened rain all day and the main road in is down to one lane. They chose to start the road work on a Saturday. The town is upset because this is their yearly big event. But what I lacked in sales was made up by plenty of smiles, handshakes and making new friends. I especially liked teasing and talking to lil’ Rocko and his sister who are both in school. Rocko if you are out there I still think you should dress up like a pancake for Halloween.

About 3 pm it started to drizzle so I wrapped things up and took a nap. I told Karen at the display next to the Go-Go Bus to wake me if the sun comes out. She forgot, I'm glad she did. When I woke at 6:30 pm the sun was out but the whole town was rolled up. No one around. It was like aliens dissolved everyone and I was the last one alive.

I took a long drive one way but there were no towns.


So spun around and headed into Beaver falls. I drove up and down for over an hour looking for a grocery store. I was told by one person there is nothing but Save A Lot. C’mon this can’t be. So I drove around some more and another person told me, yep that’s all there is in Beaver Falls unless you drive a distance to another town and there is Giant Eagle. I was not driving any further to get food at the big bird so I wandered into a bordering town and found an old grocery store called Foodland. That’s where I shopped. Old school.

I went back to the Bus and set up camp. South Western Pa. is hilly and so is Homewood. I thought I was parked level enough but I wasn’t. Have you ever tried sleeping on a slant? All the blood rushes to one side of your body. Before dozing off I walked the town. Eerie. A silent town, an abandoned hotel with railroad tracks that had trains rumbling through constantly. I locked the doors and tried to get some good sleep. I did between the intervals of the train passing through which seemed like every 20 minutes.





I woke about 9 when I heard the festival get started. A car arrived early for the car cruise so I had to straighten the Go-Go Bus. When I opened the door I heard jangling. Hey there’s my keys. I slept with the keys in the door lock. My goodness. Someone could have driven off with the Bus with me in it. I fell back to sleep until almost 11 am.

The end of part one.