...I really just can't help myself - it's so fantastic!! Shattering records all over the place, for days on end! It also meant that I saw neighbours that I haven't seen all winter as we all slowly shed our parkas and went out into our yards again. My yard is almost officially ready for spring, shame I have to wait a few months to put plants in. A few interesting things happened whilst out in the fresh air.
Since before I could really do anything I needed to clean up the winter garbage, I grabbed a bag and my ridiculous (but handy) garbage grabber thingy. Just on my corner, and extending two houses down, I picked up almost a bag full of garbage. Now, that in itself is not all that interesting, however, not finding any used condoms or condom wrappers says tons; clearly my street is on the upswing! Please note, suburbanites may not want to use this as a barometer for their neighbourhood.
After spending hours and hours raking up leaves (#$%^& poplar trees don't lose their leaves until the snow weighs them down) I then had the mammoth task of picking them all up. Enter random community encounter. One of the guys who picks scrap metal out of the autobins was hard at work in the back lane and I asked if perhaps he'd like to help me bag leaves and sweep along the curb (yes, I sweep along the curb - I take this house pride thing seriously!) for some cash instead. It was an unconventional way to meet a neighbour (turns out he even lives on my street) and saved me some back breaking labour, we'll call this another win.
Something I've been meaning to mention for a while but haven't had a chance, is, has anyone else noticed the distinct decline in crime in the North End this year? Of course, there is still crime, and just last night there was a violent incident in Lord Selkirk Park, but it seems as though after the "shot in the eye but wants to finish her beer lady" incident late last year that crime has shifted. Now, as I hold down two jobs, neither of which is in journalism, I have not tracked all of the violence in Winnipeg in 2012 so I don't have hard and fast stats to back this up. What I do have is the knowledge that as my radio wakes me up every morning with news reports and I wait for the inevitable North End street announcement following every "Police responded to a stabbing/robbery/arson/murder last night" I've been hearing a lot more from the south side of the bridge than usual. I suppose it could entirely just be my perception (and I was away for most of February...) but we all know I am a little sensitive to things be mislabeled as North End so my eagle (elephant?) ears are usually listening for mentions of my 'hood.
I had one more exciting thing happen this weekend, but I'll save it for another post, but a teaser is that it's another "small world" sort of story (and it involves me stalking the MLS, again). Gotta keep you wanting more ;)
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