Piss and trash aka why I stay inside

 
 

I live in an apartment building in Ken-Ton. It’s a small apartment building. There’s only 5 apartments and because it’s an apartment building, the cost of rent is among the better you’ll find anywhere in the area. If you’ve been a friend of mine for a while, you’ll remember I’ve had some bad apartment experiences after I was priced out of the Elmwood Village in the fall of 2016. I tried living in an apartment building in a nice spot on Hertel and that was a disaster. I then moved into Kenmore with mixed results. My current apartment while old and dated in some ways has been mainly quiet and peaceful, which is nearly all I wanted. But… it’s still an apartment building and because of that you deal with and see things you probably won’t see even 50 yards down the street where people’s homes are. Mostly because if a strange car were to park in front of a homeowner’s home out here there will likely be eyes on them and a who is f- is this vibe. I think this is true of a lot of suburbs. Kenmore ain’t exactly Clarence or one of the most affluent burbs but the sentiment is similar. I’m not judging folks here but I’ve seen it with my own eyes several times over the years. If a strange car parks in front of someone’s home there’s a vibe. Who is this? Why are they here? The nuttiest ones will take pictures of them or post online if they think someone is suspicious. The neighbors generally know the other neighbors and are familiar with their vehicles. My point is, the type of stuff I’ve seen the last 2 afternoons aren’t as likely to happen 50 yards down the street.

 

Not only do I live in a small apartment building, it is an apartment complex. There are several other identical two story buildings spaced out up and around the block. Behind all the buildings are parking lots. In front is street parking. During the winter the town enforces an overnight parking ban so this time of year, people tend to utilize the parking lots as opposed to spring and summertime where some will park on the street because getting in and out of the building might be easier using the front door rather than going down and through the basement to use the back door to the parking lot. You’ll see a lot of similar type apartment complexes on Delaware Avenue and more on Elmwood, Kenmore, Sheridan and Colvin. Basically all of the major streets and bus routes have them. I’m sure the homeowners near them don’t like them because they are the closest thing to low cost housing the burbs has and people with homes and cars and maybe a little bit of money are taught to fear those with less or none of those things because of a belief they will try to steal what they have, or because they think they will bring a bad element to the neighborhood. I’ve been seeing it all my life. Plus I know at least some of these complexes will take people who are getting their rents paid by government programs. I think of the 5 apartments in my building, only 3 of us work full time, perhaps even just 2. Now when it comes to people who are retired, or on disability or are just poor, it’s just like anyone else. Some people are decent folks, others are jerks. I don’t think that matters whether you are living in a building of budget apartments or luxury condos. But perception is everything.

 

Strange people are always parking right in front my building who don’t live here, have any business with anyone who lives here or in one of the nearby buildings. A chunk of them are people who are visiting or sometimes working at the retirement home across the street who has it’s own parking lot but perhaps there’s a reason why not everyone uses it. Another chunk of people who park in front of my building are people who are doing so for a very short time. I’ve looked out my window and seen folks reading, eating, texting, talking on the phone, napping, smoking and more. It’s a popular pull over spot and it’s not in front of the home of someone specific, plus my street is a quiet street right off of Elmwood, so maybe it’s convenient for those reasons. Yesterday, a car pulled up and parked right in front of my building. With my desk right at my front window I have eyes on the street in front of me and I admit sometimes I get sucked into the whole “who’s that” game when I have nothing better to do. I didn’t recognize the car so I played the fun game: “retirement home, visitor, delivery or something else”. This is the game where I have to determine, as quickly as I can, what their purpose for stopping was. I saw it was a man in the car, alone. I decided he was a “something else” as I felt he was gonna just stop, maybe to check his phone or make a call. I was partially right and it was something else but this was to eat. I could see him start to dig into a sandwich or sub of some kind. And now with far less mystery to entertain, I got back to what I was doing.   

 

About ten minutes later my eyes noticed movement and I looked outside and saw the man had got out of the car and was now standing just outside the passenger door on the curb. He was finishing the last bite of his sandwich and then casually just dropped both the wax paper it was wrapped in and bag the sub came in on the ground. I immediately got annoyed. You’re just gonna drop your garbage on the ground? People litter all the time and it’s a fact of life but it’s still infuriating when it’s done right in front of you and right in front of where you live. Within 30 seconds he got back into the car and like that, he was gone. All that was left of him was balled up wax paper and a Jim’s Steakout sub bag. Buy local!

 

For the next few hours I glanced out my window every now and again and saw the garbage on the grass out in front. I was having internal conversations about going out there and grabbing the trash but part of me was screaming at me; “don’t you dare clean up after that asshole”. Perhaps that’s why the world is in the shape it’s in, because we are too prideful and stubborn to lend a hand. It’s almost like if I saw the man drop the stuff and thought it was an accident, I’d be much happier to go there and clean up after him rather than watching a jerk discard their trash in such a cavalier way with an attitude like, it’s not my problem now. For the record, I had things to do inside for a bit and got caught up in that but then as evening began, I looked outside for the trash to see if it was still there and it was not. Either someone else cleaned it or mother nature relocated it. As the night went on I kept thinking about it and thinking about other ways in which people are selfish and do not consider the feelings of others or what their actions can do. Butterfly effect much?

 

I woke up today and I had forgotten about it. I slept in and took a seat at my desk to get caught up on the day. I must have missed so much, I mean, I hadn’t been logged in for nearly 11 hours! Sarcasm notwithstanding, it was around the same time in the afternoon as the littering yesterday when a strange car pulled up in front of my building again. It was time once again to play the game of “retirement home, visitor, delivery or something else”. I saw it was a man alone in the car. He began fiddling with something in his passenger seat almost immediately so I guessed, must be delivery. I was wrong. He just sat in the car for several minutes and I got wrapped up into something for a few so I lost track and interest. About 15 minutes later I noticed him standing alongside the passenger side door of the car, just like where the guy was yesterday only he wasn’t eating anything, he was just diddling with his phone. I thought, well at least he isn’t littering. And then like he had heard me and had a twisted sense of humor he reaches down and he took it out. Yes he took it out and started peeing while continuing to play with his phone. At least that’s what he was playing with. He was multitasking as an act of subterfuge. For me it was a double eww. The first eww was having this guy just flick his dong out and pee so casually in front of my window and building. The second eww was the thought of how easy it was for him to get in and out so he was absolutely working commando today. Double eww. I wanted to knock on my window to try to startle him because guys really love it when they get startled while trying to pee somewhere they should not. I thought maybe I could startle him and he’d flinch and pee on himself. That would be hilarious and just but time was precious. While I was overthinking options he finished up and flicked it back in just like that and pulled out a cigarette. So now you are gonna pee on the grass and then drop a cigarette butt on it too. What a dirtbag. I then snapped the picture you see here on this post. The resolution is not good enough to out anyone but I wanted to illustrate what my view looked like.

 

So now I’m left wondering. Will someone tomorrow afternoon drop a deuce on the grass next to their car? After today’s lovely act, I pulled down the blinds and thought maybe they should just be left down, lol. All of this shameless behavior made me remember why I prefer to stay inside mostly. There far less piss and trash in here.