Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Walking on broken glass

I really enjoyed many aspects of the meeting people part and the recovery process. I hope that all I met realize this and know this description of my physical living area does not accurately depict the people we met @ RUSK. That was fun & rewarding.

Having said that, I want to share my honest experience living in Key Largo at Mile Marker 97.5. We stayed at the Blue Fin Rock Harbor RV park/marina. I don’t know much about the owners, but as soon as we got to the RUSK club, people warned us about them, calling them slum lords. I was kind of surprised, but what the hell, everyone has an opinion. Then I heard more. By the time I had heard as unsavory things as the owners getting angry and doing coke (only rumors okay, opinions, whatever), I had already experienced the male owner yelling at someone. I had already experienced firsthand the men at the RV park discouraging me from using the shower rooms when I was all ready to hand over $20 for the shower room key. I showered in the RV the whole time, which is really no big deal since Jeff got a nice shower sprayer for us. The problem here is that they advertised showers; sometimes it is nice to take a nice hot shower at the RV Park and use less daily propane for use to use and a little bit of a change. But like I said, no biggie.

Days later, it was time to hit the laundry room. I thought for a minute someone forgot it was there because there was a rusted out laundry bin on rollers (that, due to rust build-up, wasn’t rolling anywhere). Of the five machines or so, ONE OR TWO even worked at all. The owner told me that they were nice big machines. Hmmm, really Alana? They cost $3.50 and $4.50 a load. They were NOT that big. Or nice. So, that about covers the grounds. The lot was expensive and it just seemed in retrospect, we did not get a whole lot for it. Except for the $40 we got back after we had written a check 6 weeks prior for $200 utilities up front. Who pays for utilities before you use them? We do, apparently. But like I said, we got $40 back, so I will disregard this element of the cash heist. Kind of.

The rest of my experience with the actual neighborhood was somewhat an extension of the rv park. It was glaringly obvious there were some deficits with this neighborhood. I don’t think I mentioned the permanent drunk fest across the way from us. The following activities occurred on a daily basis across the small street from us: drinking,yelling, littering and forgetting what day it was. To the best of my knowledge, there lived a small child in this alcoholic little trailer (a double wide, maybe, not even sure), but neither Jeff or I ever saw that child. The parent(s) were heard by either myself or Jeff (mostly Jeff though) whining about whose responsibility it was to take care of the child. It seemed safe to assume that if they were not complaining about parenting time, they completely lost track of parenting all together. It was often not clear. The distinction remained somewhat of a mystery during the week as the drinking and haphazard whining (that could be heard 50 feet away outside of their trailer and wafting into our personal space right outside our RV) more or less on the weekends or any football game they deemed important. It got a little bit annoying. I, to this day, do not really know exactly who lived there and claimed parentage of this child, but there was a woman who hung out there quite a lot and who could be frequently heard exalting herself to the most unhumbling (and unflattering) extent. So this could be the Mommy; I am not completely certain. What I do know is that this woman could be the one who was talking loudly (really?!) New Years Eve about this guy who was about 23 years old groping her ass and wanting to get into her pants. By just her voice (don’t judge someone by their voice-you may be giving them too much credit), she sounded late 50ish. Then she opened her big mouth (some more) and declared “how can someone 20 years younger than me think I am into him” or something to that effect. So instantly calculating that she was 43 (or so), I relayed the story to Jeff . The next day he pointed out the only woman hanging out on the front porch of this trailer. This woman...,well, I will just leave it to the imagination. I will tell you this: there is a reason she sounded MUCH older than her years. And if this is the drunk Mommy of said child, God help the young one. Now, you remember that I had mentioned NO gossip as a part of my 2010 resolutions. I realize that the tale I have just told and have yet to tell is an example of my shortcomings. I accept that, but I will probably continue with this character defect-just for the rest of the evening. The dilemma I have is that I have not used names. Oh wait, I guess I did. As far as the neighbors, I did not use names. As far as the business practices displayed being fact, not slander, I am not sure I completely apologize to the mentioned owners of the RV park.

Now, as far as the actual environs of the RV park neighborhood, they left a LOT to be desired. There was glass broken randomly around the sides of the roads, especially near the dumpster. There were areas that I had to dodge shredded beer cans (shredded metal is almost as nasty as the shards of glass. I don’t think my dogs would argue the points as they had to navigate gingerly over the territory on four naked paws; at least I had my flip flops on. As I would walk around the block,Max would head toward the bushes/grassy area. Everytime we visited those areas, there was a new set of shoes disposed or suspiciously abandonded socks on the ground (very very creepy, ok, if you have a vivid imagination like I do and watch way too much Sopranos). There was a bike or moped often attached to a tree next to an abandoned six pack or empty 40 ouncer. Yay, maybe the moped rider walked home. Then one day, we found a motorcycle with a dog latched on with a makeshift rope of some sort. Fortunately, there were a few adults near the motorcycle, so we did not have to worry about the fate of the dog (well, actually, I think we worried more and you would too if you saw them).

This pretty much summarizes the experience day to day living (walking the dogs and biking around the neighborhood). Walking on broken glass was a daily occurrence. Did you notice this was not a rave review? Next, I will compensate the neighborhood experience with my sober living experience and that really made up for all of this (as well as the diving certification and accomplishment). That will have to be my next posting as I am almost done with my laundry.
Have a good one & see you next time!

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