The undeveloped lot in town

I couldn’t take being cooped up for much longer and took all three dogs to our old neighborhood near Busby Drive on the near-eastern part of town.. A sports bar with tennis courts is there. I go there a few times a year to collect weather-worn tennis balls for Sadie. This is an undeveloped lot of mesquite, cholla, palo verde, love grass and trash where the dogs can run unencumbered. A few homeless people call this area home. It is surrounded on the eastern side with old homes and to the south with older apartment complexes. People who live here cut through this lot to go shopping.

It was cool outside, almost 60F with wind-swept grey cumulus clouds coming from the South. The sky was overcast and few people were outside. The dogs were just happy to be outside to run again and didn’t care where they were.

This lot between the Sports Gallery, Buffalo Wild Wings and the Food City grocery store is renowned for not just the homeless, but drug users huffing, alcoholics drinking and illegals hiding in the gullies. This is, in short, not a place to be at night. How many crime scenes have been reported here is only known to the local police station.

The dogs didn’t care. They ran, they barked, they chased imaginary rabbits. A lone juvenile hawk perched suspiciously on a nearby street lantern. The mountains looked cold and uninviting.

Sadie barked. A homeless man yelled. A few neighborhood children were running in the trash-filled wash. I didn’t mean to disturb the homeless man, apologized and took the dogs to another area of the open area. A few stray plastic bags stuck to mesquite branches flew freely in the wind. Nearby highway traffic was audible.
Much to my surprise there’s a new construction site of apartments coming up just north of the wash. Do the potential renters know that this area is popular with the homeless, huffers and illegals? The few shacks that are there now are getting encroached by construction equipment. The city knows these homeless are here.

Fry’s Foods across the street feeds them generously with their left-over foods every night. A large group of scruffy homeless men call the Fry’s Foods parking lot their daytime area of socialization. Maybe what this town needs is a dedicated shelter for the homeless. Instead, they sleep in undebeloped lots around the center of town.

The dogs of course were all oblivious to all this as they ran around the mesquite, sniffed the tall grass and played. Sammy peed as much as he could on every tree. The dogs didn’t get their usual two mile run in, but today they got to run around and be dogs. An hour later we were back home and I resumed my studies.

Another winter storm is due tonight or tomorrow. Although not as severe as last week's storm, the latest forecast says that Tucson will get some rain tonight. I'll be hoping we get some, too.

As for my left arm, it's still very sore. I can't raise the arm higher than my elbow. I had to have Kevin help me place my long hair (that's desperately in need of a cut) in a ponytail.