UNCLE, already!

I cry UNCLE! Gee whiz! I give up. Someone got into my car again in the wee hours Wednesday morning. It is parked in the street now instead of the driveway. It still has the garbage bag over the missing window from the last break-in; at least they didn't need to break any windows to get in. It is still not in driving condition.

I haven't had the money to replace the window or the ignition switch. There is also some other problem with starting it besides the ignition -- thus, the unsuccessful attempt to start it by last month's car thief. This time, I'm not sure if they were trying to steal the whole car or not since the ignition is already torn up, it is hard to tell. They did ransack the glove box and the center console. There's nothing in there they want. They just throw my papers all over the inside of the car.

I won't have the money any time soon to fix the car. Income is just not rolling in right now. It will be fixed when I can scratch it up. The license plate renewal is due on the 14th, and I don't see that happening either. If I could get a certain someone to get his old piano and crap out of the garage, I could keep the car in there -- but, after it's been in there for 7 years or so, I don't see that happening. After the second time the car was damaged, I stood there and cried and he said, maybe I can get that piano out of the garage (which he hasn't, still) and you can keep the car in the garage. As J says, that's like closing the barn door AFTER the cow escapes!

Wed. morning I went to R and asked him if he could get that piano out of the garage and told him someone had been in the car, he basically said that won't do any good and I need to junk the car. Well, why not store it until I can scrape up enough to get it running again? Don't people fix cars anymore? I sure can't afford to buy another one.

J has offered to let me have/drive his (deceased) mom's car around town and he set a price for it and I could just work for him to work off the amount instead of coming up with the money. Well, that is very good of him to try to help me, but he says it can't be driven on the highway because the overdrive is out. R says I could still use it to take MK to Indy for contest, but I would have to take Rte. 40 (which I do anyway) and drive 45 mph. This would help me for in town purposes for a few months, but eventually, I'm going to be saddled with two gimp cars, and several hours of labor I don't really have time for.

License plate renewal is due the 14th, and I can't pay that this month, so I've got to find a way to get the car off the street so I don't get fined and the car get towed away, which I'm sure would cost me a lot, too. R said if I could get it started, we could take it over to his brother's in WTH and leave it there until his brother returns from his 3-month duty with the Nat'l Guard. When bro returns, he could maybe find out how much it will take to fix whatever it needs, and maybe I could eventually get it done.

Anyway, my whole point here is, when bad people do bad things to other people, they don't give one thought to the hardships they cause those people. One brief moment they cause harm, damage, pain, even death, and unsuspecting innocent people are left with the consequences for longer periods of time. Financial difficulties are increased when trying to deal with what has been done -- taking money or time away from other things needed in their lives or their families' lives. Of course, in the instance when they physically harm someone, or even kill them, the effects can last a lifetime.

A few years back an acquaintance was murdered. She was a single Christian woman about my age. She was a good person who took care of aging parents and minded her own business. One parent had alzheimer's, the other one was deceased at the time she was murdered. All she was doing was feeding the outside cats before she got ready to go to work. Why? Why?

She lived relatively close to me. I lived in fear for a couple of years after that. I still leave lights on inside the house all night every night. I feel like I would have some warning because I have two noisy dogs. The one accused of murdering her was already in prison for something else when they found out it was him. He may be in prison, but I still live in fear. We've had some really bad people living right next door to us over the years. Right now, so far, there seems to be ok people there.

Street fights in front of my house with 21 or so people . . . gangs of people forcing their way into the house next door when there was a baby living there . . . threats of shooting . . . shots in my porch window . . . numerous of mine and R's tires slashed here . . . graphic threats (shown by way of graffiti drawings) of what would be done to me if I remove the graffiti one more time . . . my sister's car window shot out while she was driving to work, R was "rolled" (I think that is what you call it), or knocked unconscious as he was leaving work one night and his $50 taken from his pockets . . . attempts to steal my car two or three times . . . what am I to do? Wait it out? Hope nothing physically happens to me or MK? Hope the house next door burns down like so many in this neighborhood do --( and why do they?????) That would take care of any more riff-raff moving in.

I think I am a good person. I don't bother anybody. I try to help people in whatever little ways I can. I work hard. I scrimp to get by. I do without a lot. The government and other financial advisers tell us to cut back on spending. I don't think I can cut back much further. But, those bad people out there are forcing me to find ways to spend over and over and over on fixing up what they don't care about, but what means a great deal to me and MK. Uncle! I give up!