Calamity in America (30 page)

And if everything was so wonderful, why is this city in so much financial trouble?  I did hear that Chicago might have to declare bankruptcy.  That is the third largest city in the United States I think!  Certainly does not sound like things are so wonderful there.  Even though I admit I don’t know much about financial stuff, I do know what bankruptcy is.  That is what you do when you are flat broke but you owe a lot of people a lot of money.  You declare bankruptcy and all those people that you owe money to get nothing.  I bet that makes them pretty mad.

Yesterday, an older couple was robbed in the Walmart parking lot and it was right in the middle of the day.  The police came and it was kind of a big mess at work.  Part of the problem was all the customers were just standing around gawking.  It was somewhat scary though.  I heard the robbers were armed with guns but that might have just been a rumor.  It is a fact that robberies are getting more and more common (at least in this city) and I suspect everywhere else too.

I shot a dog yesterday!  I had the Thursday off because I will be working this weekend.  It was a nice day and I was out running near my place.  I have been seeing a few loose dogs around here lately.  I’m pretty sure that people are just dropping them off out here in the country because they can no longer afford to feed them. 

I know the animal shelters have stopped taking any dogs or cats.  They are overwhelmed with animals that people have dropped off.  They have no choice but to kill almost all of the animals that are being dropped off there.  Because of this people are either just letting them loose in the city or many are dropping them off in the country.

So, Thursday I was out running and heard something behind me.  When I looked back I saw it was a dog.  The noise I had heard was its toenails hitting on the asphalt road.  It was not barking or growling or anything, but as soon as I stopped, it stopped also.  Well, it did not totally stop but was slowly advancing toward me.  It was not really snarling or making any noise but it had its teeth bared and it had saliva dripping from its mouth.

I reached in my fanny pack and drew out my pistol and pointed it at the dog.  Then I yelled at it but that had no effect at all.  OK, I admit I was scared.  I think the fact that the dog was silent was the scariest part. 

I yelled again and when he got real close I shot him.  I know I hit it on the first shot but I shot again.  It was then lying on the ground and still moving a little so I got closer and shot it in the head, to put it out of its misery.

Then I just stood there for a minute.  I realized that my legs and arms were shaking.  I backed away some and sat down in the road.  I just sat there for awhile I guess.  When I got up I ejected the three empty shells from my gun and reloaded it with some loose rounds from my pack.  Then I just walked most of the way back to my house.  I also made sure that I watched all around me all the way back home.

Earlier, in the newspaper, I did read that someone else had been attacked by a dog, but naturally I never thought it would happen to me.  In Friday’s newspaper there was another article about someone else getting attacked by a dog. 

The reporter had interviewed a police spokesman about the dog attacks and, among other things, the policeman said that unwanted dogs could now be brought to the police station.  If the reporter had asked what was to be done with those dogs after they were dropped off at the police station it did not say in the paper, but the article seemed to infer that the police would just shoot them.

The reporter had also spoken to some of the local farmers and they were certainly not happy about people dropping dogs off in the country.  A couple of them said they had lost livestock because of these dogs.  Apparently every farmer that the reporter talked to said they were now shooting every dog they saw on their property.  None of the farmers would allow the reporter to use their names.  

After what had happened to me, I thought it was fine if the police and the farmers did shoot them all.  Now I have another reason for keeping both my deer rifle and my twenty two rifle loaded and one next to each outside door of my house.  I decided that I would shoot any dog that I see wandering up to my place.  My loaded shotgun is in my bedroom. 

The world turned and the days passed.  Fall came and went and then it was winter.  In the fall I had four new all season tires put on my car.  I had run the old ones until they were bald and I knew I had no choice but to buy new ones before we got any snow.  I also had to shoot two more dogs. 

These posed no direct threat to me but they did come to my place.  I shot each of them without any remorse.  Winter was coming and they would have died a horrible, lingering death outside in the cold with no steady food supply.  So shooting them was indeed the humane thing to do.  And I was able to bury them on the edge of my property before the ground froze.

They had many more dog problems in the city.  Even cats were a problem there.  There were just so many cats running loose from people turning them out to fend for themselves and dead ones were often seen lying here and there around the city.  Besides being gross it gave the starving dogs something to feed on.  And this seemed to make the dogs even more vicious.  Or maybe the dogs who had never before eaten anything other than prepared dog food realized that any creature was a food source that could be killed and eaten. 

It was bad enough that the police (what there was left on the force) killed any dogs they spotted if they deemed it safe to do so at the time and place they saw them in the city.

After the first month of real winter the cat and dog problems pretty much went away.  Mother Nature took care of that problem for us.  Of course, it led to other problems.  There were many, many more homeless people in the city now.  Soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and church groups were overwhelmed with all the homeless people. 

This led to many of the homeless freezing to death in the city when all the shelters were full.  Many of those who froze to death were the lucky ones because many suffered severe frostbite and lost fingers, hands, or feet.  This in turn put an economic strain on the hospitals that had to provide care for these people and then the hospital received no compensation for doing so.

Businesses made more and more cutbacks.  More and more people were laid off or had their hours cut.  I was not immune to this and I never got a full forty hours a week anymore.  But I was very happy to still have a job. 

Walmart was now open from six in the morning until nine in the evening.  They said it was their ‘winter hours’ when they made the cut, but everyone knew those hours would be permanent or maybe even end up being cut further later on in the year.

The city was still making more and more cuts.  Many city offices had very shortened hours and some were only open three days a week now.  Snow removal was done across the city and the county but light snow falls were just left on the ground and the reduced work forces were slower at removing the heavier snowfalls.

Of course Mother Nature threw a punch at us by having a much snowier winter than usual.  So everyone had to spend more on having the snow removed.  The city, the county, and all businesses had to spend more money on the snow removal when none of those places had the extra money to spend.

I had always shoveled my own driveway out myself.  It was just a good workout for me and I also saved money by doing it myself of course.  This year I had to break down and hire someone to come and plow out my place for the first time ever. 

The piles I made shoveling were just getting too big and high for me to continue to shovel more on top of them.  Also, the high banks just made for bigger snow drifts.  The guy plowed my yard out way back more than I ever did shoveling so I would have a fresh start and not have those big drifts again.  It was worth the forty dollars he charged me for the snow plowing and he did a good job.  I guess he likely got plenty of practice this year with all the snow falls we had.

I don’t like winter.  I can’t run in the winter.  I still worked out some in my own personal workout room and I shoveled a lot of snow of course.  But I want to run!

Chapter 4

Just when it looked like things would keep getting worse and worse, there seemed to be a respite.  Things did not really get better, at least not much anyway, but instead things just stopped getting worse.  This respite carried through the last little bit of the winter and into the spring season.  With the spring there did seem to be a little boost to the economic situation.  Maybe not much, but I think everyone just sat back and breathed a sigh of relief when things looked like they might be turning around and everyone was glad that the long winter was over.

At its worst, I was scheduled for twenty-four hours only a couple of weeks, but mostly I was at around thirty hours per week.  In winter, when I was paying for heat in my trailer, those reduced hours made things really tight.  I still never touched that ten thousand dollars I had though.

With spring I decided to plant a small garden.  My mom had a garden back when she still lived here, though it had grown up and been taken over since she left.  It was pretty much wide open behind the house where the garden used to be and I asked the closest neighbor if he could work up the ground with a tractor for my garden.  He actually did so for free because he was working on his field next to my place anyway.  Still it was pretty nice of him to do so for free.

It wasn’t perfect after he ran through a couple times with his tractor and whatever you called that digging thing he had on the back, but it sure helped a lot.  I worked hard with what hand tools I found in my garden shed, and after a week of occasional work on the garden I had it looking pretty good I think.  At least it looked more like I remember when my mother had used it. 

I bought some garden seeds and learned mostly what to do from reading the back of the packages.  I also talked to a couple of the older women at work about how and what to do with a garden.  They asked me if I was planning to can the stuff from the garden and that led to a bigger discussion about how to can and what was needed.  With the warmer weather yard sales were starting up again and now I had more things to look for at those sales.  

I had not done any shooting during the winter and I started shooting some again so I didn’t lose my ability, especially with my pistol.  I stopped in to the gun shop to pick up a little more ammunition for my pistol and my twenty two.  This time there was an older man working in there. 

“Can I help you miss?”

“I need some twenty two shells and I was gonna get some thirty eights for my pistol, but I might have to wait and bring an empty box so I get the right ones.”

“Is it a thirty eight special?”

“Yes.  I have it with me and it has some of the shells I want loaded in it.  Could you tell just be looking at them?”

“Maybe.  Especially if you had bought them here.”

“Yes I bought them here but from a younger guy.”

“He’s my son.”

“I do kinda see the resemblance now that you say that.”

I had my fanny pack on and pulled out my pistol.  I was careful with it because it was loaded and I kept it pointed away from both him and myself.  I ejected the shells from the gun and handed one of them to the older guy.  I saw him looking at the gun before looking at the cartridge I handed him.

“Is your name April?”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“My son told me about a pretty girl buying a thirty eight like his from us.  He spoke rather highly of you.  Said you were a no nonsense girl who was not afraid to listen and to learn.  I recognize this ammo.  How many boxes do you want?”

“Just a couple to replace what I have shot.  And one of those bulk packs of the twenty two.”

We made the sale and he told me to come on back whether I needed to buy anything or not.  He was friendly without being condescending or anything.  More like he actually cared and was being sincere.  The father was very much like his son.

When it was warm enough (according to the two older women at work) I planted my garden.  I was careful to plant my seeds in very straight rows so it would be easier for me to tell the weeds from what I had planted.  I was sure I had a lot to learn, but I was determined to try. 

The whole garden thing was another attempt to save money.  I was not the only one planting a garden either because gardening supplies of all kinds were selling like hotcakes at Walmart, and I think I can safely assume they were selling good at other places as well.

I went to many yard sales while traveling to and from work.  That’s where I always got most of my clothes and bought whatever I else I could find that I could use.  I carried more cash in my pocket than most people just so I would have it if I saw something I could use. 

I did not buy everything I came across but instead I was very selective and I always watched prices.  I became adept at the art of haggling.  Plus, people for the most part were pretty desperate to sell, which helped me lower the prices I paid. 

I did buy a large pressure canner, and I bought canning jars several times.  I did buy a new sealing ring for the pressure cooker but I will wait and see if the one it came with works before I try the new one.  I got two books on canning so I would know how to do it.  I bought a used dehydrator I thought I could maybe use in place of canning everything.  One of my canning books had a section on dehydrating foods.

I also bought a bike.  It was only five dollars and the tires held air so I bought it.  Now I sometimes ride bike in place of running.  I still run a lot though.  It is six miles from my place to the edge of the city and ten miles to the Walmart where I work.  I’m not ready to ride bike to work but it eases my mind a little knowing that I could do so if I needed to.

Something else I got from a yard sale was two steel security doors.  I had actually been looking for a couple of them for awhile now.  Before my father died he had completely redone the outside of this trailer house.  He had put up two by fours all around then insulated and put wood siding on the outside.  He had also put a new peaked insulated roof on the trailer.