Anyhoo, as with most good deeds that can't go unpunished, the bus-waiting shack has succumbed to ne'er-do-wells. I must admit, that bus-waiting shack lasted longer than I expected. Sometime during September, the windows were broken out. That left jagged glass in the window frames, and scattered around the ground.
Monday, I suggested to Hick that he take some sturdy gloves and a bucket down to the bus-waiting shack, and clean up the danger. He agreed. After all, now that HOS has moved to town to the $5000 house, we are the nearest thing to bus-waiting shed caretakers. Hick didn't bother to mention his plans, but I discovered him and our three dogs down there when I stopped for the mail around 2:30 on the way to town. The dogs weren't helping much. They were wading in the creek, what with temps at 92 degrees.
I didn't take a picture of the vandalized bus-waiting shed, because it made me sad. But here's one of Hick's repairs that I took on Tuesday.
Hick boarded up the end window, and put a plexiglass replacement in the front window. He also added a door.
Hick said he considered a padlock, giving those kids the key, but was afraid somebody would get locked inside. Same with a latch on the outside to hold the door closed. He decided on magnets. I figure they might last a month until somebody pries them loose.
Let the record show that I am NOT this bad a picture-taker! I had returned from getting the mail out of EmBee, and remembered that I wanted a picture of the repaired bus-waiting shack. I reached into still-running T-Hoe, pumping that AC at 72 degrees, and pulled my phone out into the 94-degree heat. Apparently, the lens did not appreciate the sudden change. I tried another one after wiping the lens with my finger:
Still not having it! Doo doo doo doo! Maybe something spooky! Nah. When I got back inside T-Hoe and backed up for the other shot, the picture turned out fine from the coolness of the interior.
Anyhoo... back on Monday, while Hick was putting on the door, the bus dropped off the kids after school. One of the girls came over to talk to Hick about the shack.
"We haven't been going inside, because we're afraid to get cut on the glass."
Hick declared to me that surely they could have picked it up. The girl was about 13.
"I don't think so. Kids don't do things like that for themselves. They're coddled. I'm not so sure a door is a good idea. Now the trespassers will be having sex in it."
"I think they already did. There was a condom in there. That girl said, 'Did you pick up the condom?' I told her I did. THEN she said, 'Did you sweep out the glass?' And I told her, 'You guys can bring a broom down here and sweep it out yourself! I fixed the windows and put on a door!'"
Which is kind of my theme today. HOS went out of his way to build a bus-waiting shack that his own kid didn't have a need for. But of course the ne'er-do-wells couldn't keep from destroying the windows, just for fun. They had no rights to be on the property or in the shack, but couldn't control their pure meanness to ruin it for the kids who need it.
The kids HOS built the shack for seem to feel entitled to it, expecting others to keep it clean and in usable shape. They're not babies. Four of the five of them are 10 or older. You'd think they could keep their bus-waiting shack in usable shape, even if they can't repair windows. It's still got a sturdy roof over their heads to keep them dry, and four walls to keep out the impending winter winds.
Two different kinds of people, neither able to help themselves.
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You might have spied the broken-off broom laying beside the door. I don't know if the kids brought that, or Hick. I'm guessing the kids, because Hick would not leave such a valuable tool behind!
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Hick is thinking of them, and they have no respect for this caring gift.
ReplyDeleteThey're kids, but they're old enough to show appreciation!
DeleteUnfortunately this world is full of both kinds of ne'er-do-wells and lazy takers.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Somebody threw a 44 oz foam cup in our yard. Who does that? It's a private road, a dead end. I suppose somebody's "guest" on a Gator tossed it. As if there's not enough unoccupied land where they could toss it (bad enough), they chose our YARD!
DeleteIt's amazing how many people expect "someone else" to keep things nice for them. Too many times I've seen and heard people walk past a mess and say "someone should clean that up", at bus stops or pretty much anywhere else. I'm "the one" who picks up rubbish and dumps it in the bin which is usually only two feet away and once there was side-mirror glass all around a bus stop where the driver had miscalculated and got too close to the kerb, hitting his mirror on the bus stop sign. That first day, I was in a hurry and just got on the bus, but every time I was there for the next few weeks I picked up glass until the bus came, most of the pieces were very small but could still get stuck in shoes or thong footwear or even bare feet. I've even walked along the front edge of the flats here, along the footpath and picked up fast food wrappers etc from when people stop to eat lunch and then just empty it all out of their car.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! Nobody else is going to do it!
DeleteThat is so sad. First that some think destructive behavior is fun and second that young people can't think for them selves.
ReplyDeleteOur mailboxes are encased in a wooden cabinet-type structure, mounted on metal poles, sunk three feet into the ground in concrete. That only allows the ne'er-do-wells to poke at the doors and dent them. Sometimes they bend the doors down and rip them off. Other people who have a single mailbox on a post say that they have a collection of cheap spares, ready to replace a bashed one.
DeleteI don't think the excuse of "there's nothing to do around here" is good enough. Hick said there were rocks inside the shack, with the broken glass. Not sure if teenagers did it, or adults. I tend to think teenagers would have tipped the whole thing over, just because they could. They've tried to push over the mailboxes by ramming the whole thing with a truck. That concrete did its job!
Kids were never lazy, impulsive and stupid in my day. What is the matter with kids today? Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way?
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh! Ain't THAT the truth!
DeleteLike the lady who flushed tampons in her RV and then demanded that we fix it because they are parked here and can't dump their sewer. She didn't seem to understand that since the clog was in her RV we were not responsible. I spoke very slowly and used simple words to dumb it down for her.
ReplyDeleteOf course you were responsible! Nobody these days seems to be able to assume responsibility for their OWN actions. Maybe she tried to call the RV manufacturer next, and then the tampon manufacturer.
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