Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Tuesday, June 20, 2017 --- Mattie died 405 weeks ago today.


Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2004. Mattie was two years old and you can see he had a sense of humor. The yellow glasses he was wearing, and upside down at that, were the glasses that went to his toy, Mr. Potato Head. Mattie thought if the potato could wear the glasses then so could he. Mattie and I were good at being zany together. If I started it, he would play right along. 







Quote of the day: The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,but true beauty in a Woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she knows. ~ Audrey Hepburn

As Sunny and I were walking today, I saw a truck backing up into the green space you see in this photo. This park is near our home and since I can remember, I have never ventured into this park to sit on a bench. You can't! The benches are always filled with homeless people. Though this park is run by the National Park Service, this park is the meeting ground of homeless people by day and who knows what at night. At times the grouping of homeless people has gotten out of hand with tents and BBQ's, which can be dangerous. As this group caused a fire. But my major issue is the graffiti that shows up. It was the worst I have ever seen it. I reported this wall by the park last year and the city came to clean it. But the graffiti practically multiplied this year and it was hateful to see on each of my morning walks with Sunny. 

So in May I reported it once again to the city and sent in photos. The truck backing up today into the park was from the city. I could tell this from a distance, so Sunny and I walked over to thank these men for their service and for beautifying our city. I am not a graffiti fan, I don't even care for it when it is artistic. If it isn't supposed to be there, I don't want to see it, and instead it diminishes the beauty of our Nation's capital. The men I spoke to today told me they cleaned this wall last year too, and are well aware of the fact that once they clean something, people will deface the property again. They

seemed just as frustrated as me. They also mentioned that they cleaned the other two areas I reported in May (These two photos are the other two locations). The other two areas I drive by, so the next time I am in my car, rest assured I will be assessing these walls. 

If you look at the overpass in the first photo I posted, you see that a portion of the wall is covered in black paint. That is the paint that came off the walls from the cleaning. They use chemicals and a power washer to remove the graffiti and while they were doing it, you can see that the bi-product was the paint seeping down the wall. However, even this is better to look at than the wall behind the silver fence completely covered with words, scribbles, and ugliness.