My Neighborhood

Okay, to sum up the past few weeks, I have been doing relatively good in my classes, but regularly failing my quizzes for financial accounting while passing the homework. I have no idea what grade I will get, but I am not immensely worried because I can retake a D, and a C is a good sign. Meanwhile I have been working with tutors to try and seriously understand accounting. I think the tests just rush me at 10 questions with 6 mins for each question, (divided down from the hour the test takes.)

Not bad for three internet courses really, though I have a midterm report coming up I am a bit edgy about in Personal Business. Not really my field, but I have a ton of sources to pull from.

Bêlit is growing so big! She's starting to behave better too, and learning tricks. Definitely no more sleeping on the floor with her though. She is too dominant for that not to send the wrong message. The vet says obedience and agility classes are a bad idea until she is fully vaccinated for parvo, which has been frustrating for us, because, for awhile, she was nearly unbearable with how difficult she was being. But it seems to be a rare occurrence now.

Here's the real news though. A few days ago some supposedly gang connected members of our neighborhood, (freshly moved in,) broke into the house of the animal abusers' across the street. They had waited until everyone was gone but the women. They beat the old woman with a wrench and sliced her up with a razor. Even better, the cops apprehended them, sat them right in front of the house where anyone making statements to them could be seen by the assailants, and stood outside the old woman's house for 20 minutes yelling "police!" while being too chicken to go in.

Finally my boyfriend's mom went over there and made it clear there was a woman injured in the house, as the young woman that had been there had left to get help. It's possible their family is playing at gang wars too, and this is the start of worse. Especially since, from what I have heard, that 8:00 AM beatdown was the last of a crime spree by guys that involved shooting a man further down in the neighborhood and ripping off the nearby Handy.
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The cousins and such of the criminals, who are going to be tried for attempted murder apparently, put the word out that they'd fuck up anyone they found out was involved in getting their relatives caught. So everyone is scared, especially since a few of the girls in our neighborhood were outright threatened for no reason.

We are putting multiple motion sensor lights up, doubling the doors (a door within each door,) and if it gets worse, getting a shotgun and loading it with rock salt. I don't think Sherry or I have it in us to kill someone, I think maybe Chauncey might if it were a really bad situation, but you had better use a gun you pull. Rock salt will drop any intruder hard and that "sha-shick" of a shotgun being cocked is a good deterrent on its own. The rottweiler and the mix lab we have won't hurt things either. I am still very very scared, though, and so is Sherry.

We can't walk Bêlit at night now, or really even down the street at all, because as a purebred, she's prime for theft. She's worth enough money that she could get taken quickly if we are unable to defend her. Instead we go to nearby Muse (pronounced muce, not muse like the greek myth,) There we drop by our friend Robbie's house and walk her down his long, mostly deserted road.

So obviously there have a lot of update, and poor Sherry is really stressed. It's her birthday today and later we are surprising her with a triple chocolate cake I made and chocolate covered strawberries we got as a gift from her significant other, Bob, since he can't get down here right now. I had enough frosting to make 19 cupcakes, and am giving six to the nice neighbors, six to Chauncey's aunt Denise for her and Stuey, and six for Robbie, who has been having a horrible time with his back due to a collapsed disc. (The last one is sort of in limbo, I can't eat it, since none of this is vegan.)

I wish Chauncey, Sherry, and I could get out of this neighborhood. It was mostly safe before. Now it's so scary.

Next update I'll post more pics of Bêlit. She is so big and cute!