Fightinville Journal

A woman was on the sidewalk outside my house, sobbing and crying loudly.  "Are you okay?" I asked her.  Her boyfriend wouldn't stop smoking that shit, and he got angry and insulting and left her when she tried to stop him.  They won't stop smoking it until they're ready and they'll say anything to get it, I told her. You can find someone better.  I gave her a Halloween-sized Twix. She was still distraught and eventually I had to leave.  Two days later I saw her as we were walking our.dog.  She was screaming angrily at some guy who was walking on the other side of the street. 

The city tore down the small tent camp across from the shelter, and then to everyone's astonishment also demolished the derelict house and burned building next to it. Both had been on the chopping block for years.  Tearing down the tent camp is not new in itself. We've seen it several times over the years we've been here. What happens afterwards is the residents then disperse throughout the neighborhood in smaller camps, we get tired of seeing it and dealing with it, and the homeless get pushed back to the field they started from.  And the cycle repeats.  This time, my neighbor called me because some homeless were setting up on the basketball court. I went out there to find the chaplain with two shopping carts of stuff and a couple of high looking guys hanging out.  I explained they couldn't stay, offering them each a piece of Halloween candy to soften matters.  An hour later another neighbor called on the other end of the block to let me know the chaplain had m...