Things have been very strange this past week. Iowa is pretty much under water. My family and friends have been lucky enough to not have been hit with damage. On Monday at around 3am the house 20 feet away from our house burned up. This by far was one of the most surreal experiences of my life thus far.
The woman living there got out in time, but is now homeless. As we watched hoards of her belongings (dressers, stove, family pictures...) as they were thrown by firefighters into the alley I couldn't help but wonder. The fire is under investigation for arson, and could be part of a string of trash fires in the area. So. It's been kind of nerve wracking thinking about the full trash barrels that sit beside my building and wonder when they might go up in flames.
Another frustrating and sad part is that he burned up belongings sit in the alley to be picked over by gypsy trash people. Look, I'm not one to scoff at picking through someone's trash for an item or two, but man, people were there on Tuesday morning digging through her stuff. The city also has given her 2 warnings to plan to clean up the mess or they will fine. This came on Wednesday (2 days after the fire). It just doesn't seem fair. How can this happen? Wouldn't you think, that if you saw someone's life burned up in the middle of the road, you might choose to pick a different route to take? No, they drive over her things, smashing whatever they want. It just baffles me.
