Month: July 2006

Sunday, there was too much going on when I was leaving the house. Among the minor neighborly chaos there was an old white guy sitting on a neighbor’s (AfAm family) porch trying to get my attention. Maybe because I kept looking over at the porch trying to figure out was he Latino on the Latino family’s porch or what. Anyway, when the neighborly chaos was managed, the old guy on the porch said he was diabetic and needed something to eat. I was rushed a bit confused, because something wasn’t ‘just so’. The security door was open, a sign that the occupants were home and this stranger was sitting on their stoop. I pointed him to the church across the street and told him that they could provide him with what he needed. In hindsight, I really should have made an attempt to either let the family know there was a strange guy on their porch or told him to get off their property.
Monday, rushing into the metro system there was a woman at the top of the R Street side of the Shaw metro station begging. She said she wanted some money so she could get something to eat. Since giving out money is not something I care to do, I pointed her in the direction of a ‘soup kitchen’ I knew was serving breakfast.
As it has gotten warmer I’ve been noticing people have been hanging out in places they weren’t hanging out in Winter. I wonder if people move around seasonally? Recently I went out on my church’s ‘grate patrol’ giving out sandwiches, snacks and for Summer, salad. When it was colder I noticed we ran out of sandwiches and soup and there were more stops. This time around, some of the drop off points had no people and the points we did stop off at, there were fewer people to serve. So I really do wonder if people move around seasonally? Moving to other areas that might be cooler, maybe less commercial areas where there is less heated concrete and more shady trees? Moving away from areas that provide services? I don’t know, but that’s what it looks like.

Hi PSA 501,

Lt. Welch and Lt. Wright are calling an emergency PSA meeting.

Date: Wednesday July 19th

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: St. Martins Catholic Church

1909 North Capital Street NW
Pioneer Room
Enter at the T St NW Basement Doors.

Due to the recent increase in crime I encourage all PSA residents and business owners to attend.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Tom Usselman

Well it went. Where were you? Really it wasn’t that hot.
One thing I’m in the mood to say was there were a number of people running for office. Mr. Frank Wilds was there, keeping cool with a straw hat. Sitting for a spell was also Ms. Rae Zapata, in big floppy hat. I think she had a posse that came before, right now I can’t remember for sure. Mr. Harry Thomas Jr. came (baseball cap), also with posse and he even went on part of the tour. At the reception Ms. Marie Johns (no head wear that I remember) came by, which I thought was funny because the host had a Fenty meet’n’greet at his about 1/2 a year ago.
At the walk’s start point in the park at 1st & Florida the politicos and their posse members went after people coming for the walk. And the people at the bus stop. And people walking through the park. I guess they need these little community gatherings to spread the word or whatever. It would help if there weren’t a dozen people running for Ward 5 and a handful of people running for mayor.
Correction: Ray has been changed to Rae.

So yesterday, prayers just started and in the back of the church this guy’s cellphone goes off. Occasionally, rarely do phones go off, and when they do there is the sound of the ringer, it gets louder when the owner takes it out of their pocket or purse, and then it is silenced. However, the sound was followed with a whispered “Hello?” and footsteps out of the sanctuary.
Cellphones have been in the hands of the regular folk for over a decade, unfortunately in that time people still don’t know how to behave with them. The question of should you answer your phone in church or at temple or in the mosque should be a no brainer. I would list rules for proper cellphone usage, but The Waiter, over at WaiterRant has done a far better job of posting rules called “How to use a cellphone without looking like an A$$hole“. Enjoy.

…the squirrels take my green tomatoes, eat part of them then toss them aside for me to clean up. Stupid tree rats. I know they are my tomatoes and not B.’s tomatoes because I’m growing a few zebra heirloom varieties, which have stripes. I mean if you’re going to steal a tomato, eat the whole thing.
Blood meal is a good thing to keep squirrels from causing too much damage. Yet you have to keep reapplying it after the rain. This has been a rainy Summer and I am a lazy gardener.
The Swiss Chard has been doing well though. I’ve been eating it all this week when I cook at home. I cook it like spinach, saute garlic, then add chopped chard to the pan. Cook until very, very wilted. Add salt and fresh pepper. The two pots I have going serve me well enough. That and it is very colorful. It has white, bright yellow or scarlet red ribs and green leafy bits.
Beans. Beans made a come back. Too bad I haven’t been much in the mood to cook them. So I haven’t been picking them off fast enough to eat.

I haven’t been watching TV news that much this week and I might have missed it in the paper but a little birdie told me that two human vertebrae were found in an alley in the NW section of the TC this week.

My first job, at the age of 16, was a cashier at the large chain grocery store in town. Think something like Shopper’s or Safeway. I worked there off an on till I was about 20. So when I was reading the Post’s District Extra article “Healthful Foods Not An Option For Many” I was trying to think back to those cashier days and remember what did the people buy? Did they buy a lot of fresh veggies? I know they bought a lot of meat. That I remember vividly. Tomatoes. Iceberg Lettuce. Collards and Mustard Greens. Cucumbers, yes. Fresh broccoli, not that often. I kind of doubt that WIC checks that passed through my line mentioned any fresh foods. A quick list of the CT WIC program shows that the only fresh veggie listed is 4lbs of carrots, but that can be substituted with 4 cans of carrots. Of course, food stamps gave more leeway. Still, meat was the preferred product of the stamp holder. But the good thing about WIC was it forced the holder to pick healthier juices and foods.
Also the director of DC Hunger Solutions mentions several items that stores, in areas where there isn’t a decent grocery store, don’t have. Things like skim milk, whole wheat bread and brown rice, healthier options. Whole wheat bread and brown rice, I had to acquire a taste for those things, particularly after being raised where white rice and Wonder bread were king. Southern food, although very tasty, bad for you. Fry everything! With solid Crisco. Season with pork. White rice. Grits. Super sweet tea. Yum. Brown rice, whole wheat bread I don’t think of them as part of the great tradition of southern food. There might be a cultural disconnect. The citizen who goes to the Popeye’s more than she goes to a store for healthier food, might do so because Popeye’s might be more familiar, cheaper and more convenient (no dish washing, prep work or cooking). Looking at the Popeye’s menu, sides include corn, red beans, potatoes, green beans and collards. Unfortunately, the salt content is way up there for those items.
Problem with the healthful option besides being not available is that I don’t think people have been sold on it enough to buy the healthy options when they do make an appearance. I noticed one store mentioned they lost money on fresh veggies, which spoil faster than your regular bag of chips. Lucky, there is a farmer’s market in Anacostia. Sadly, that is only for part of the year and one may have to pass several more convenient fast and low priced options before getting to it.

Okay folks the Bates Area Civic Association Flower Power walk is this Saturday and no one has seemed to have bought tickets from me using the PayPal button. I got 4 tickets I need to get rid of, so buy my tickets.
Why would you want to buy my $10 ticket? Because even if you don’t go on the walk all the money raised go to beautification efforts in BACA (Bates section of the TC). Also it gives you a good excuse to walk around the hood with a garden lovin’ gang. It is useful for people thinking of moving over here. Dang it, buy my tickets!
Also Mary Ann needs tour guides for this weekend. Her email is maryannwilmer at verizon period net. I played tour guide on last year’s march of death and I had a history spiel. I need to brush off my books to find the info so I have something to talk about. The whole thing should be over in four hours from start to finish with refreshments afterwards.

Sometimes the dynamics of a group house gets to a point where something is the last straw. The group house dynamics for a dear friend of mine has changed to a point where he is seriously thinking about buying his own place. I asked if I could tell his tale of woe, the same tale that had me, Nathan, & BL laughing and made their 7 mo old cry.
Dear Friend (DF) had his own place once in downtown Silver Spring, but the rent kept going up. So he moved to a collegey area, into a group house with a couple of students (undergrad, graduate and about to graduate). Over the years some of the guys graduated and moved out and they were replaced by other grad students or shiny new professionals. This was fine for Dear friend (DF) until one student had his dad come and live there. Dad had long visits in student’s walk-in closet sized room. Then when a vacancy opened up, dad became a roommate. Imagine, sad old guy on the couch, watching TV, eating spaghetti-Os. When you bring your new girlfriend over, there’s someone’s dad on the couch, looking a little down, watching TV, in his pj’s. He’s like a Depression piece of furniture. I guess few of us would deny our parents a place to stay if they showed up at our doorstep. But living in a group house with your parent, I don’t know. It is not a picnic for the other roommates, but if your roommate said their dad or mom needed a place to stay for a while, would you say no? If you say yes, then you will really have to live with the consequences.
And well, Dear Friend is thinking he might be getting a bit old for the group house thing, thus moving/ home buying/ anything else to get away is on his mind. Of course I think it would help if he cut down the number of roommates to one.

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