Drive Around Saturday

 Not a shock that we didn't find any rentals in our price range.  It was to be expected.  Today was more of a curiosity drive to see if there were signs and there were some but none for us.

We had wondered if the guy who had the 4 family buildings was legitimate.  We never heard from him and he has this sign in front of both properties that says Got Cash 4 Homes.  What does that mean?  

My mom had found some rentals in our range in Riverwest.  It seems ok, looks like our vibe but the crime is not our vibe. I found a whole Reddit thread about Riverwest being bad for crime.  That really sucks because some of the streets looked alright.

My mom had come to Milwaukee back in the 1960s from a small northern town in upper Wisconsin and lived on the east side.  Her and my first dad, the one who didn't really like us kids considered getting a house in Shorewood back in the day but that didn't happen.  I said we can drive for amusement.  She had me stop at a place near UW-Milwaukee and I got out and looked up the address on my phone.  Hard no.  We figured the neighborhood was more for students but hey, some people like old ladies who watch CNN, don't they?  Put me with the right college students, my old age and many mistakes can be beneficial to the youth.  I won't get you beer, but if you are of age, I will help you build a keg stand. I am a helper.  We were curious.  We weren't curious after that so we drove along a lot of the neighborhoods and my mom had a fixation about me finding Murray Avenue and I did.  We wound up by the Shorewood library and turned ourselves around.  I totally knew that these neighborhoods would have been out of our price range and I wasn't wrong when I saw a sign off of was it Menlo or Kenlo Blvd?  It had this cool side door and I googled the address on my phone.  Yep.  That would eat one paycheck.  It was for the upper which would have been fine if the stairs weren't winding.  Looked nice.  Sigh.  It's ok.  I didn't expect anything.  Nice to look and dream.  I took Lake Drive over to downtown and it was nice to see Lake Michigan for both of us.  We found our way back to stupid West Allis and we did get to talk to our one nice neighbor.  We asked him if he got confused when he saw that lawn was mowed and we laughed about the monster's laziness.  He was fixing a neighbor's car.  He's such a good human.  I am grateful for him and glad that I have one good neighbor.

I hope I didn't lower Lois' property values by driving in Shorewood. I won't be moving to her neighborhood, she doesn't need to worry.  I have had encounters with this part of Milwaukee that have been positive despite her.  

Back in the mid-90s, I applied for an administrative assistant job with the Greenfield Police Department and the Shorewood Police Department.  Greenfield was for a third shift job and Shorewood was second shift. I aced the typing and written tests for Greenfield. Shorewood was more difficult with the written tests but I think I did ok and I knew I did ok with the typing.  Last test I took was maybe over 15 years ago and I clocked in at 80 wpm.  Not too bad.  

I had totally opposite expectations of each police department when I did the interviews.  I got called by Greenfield and the cops scared me.  I knew I screwed up the interview.  They had told me that I was their #1 choice.  Not after that craptastic interview I did.  I choked.

Then I interviewed with Shorewood and the cops were actually kind of funny and real calm.  I didn't expect to get the job but I was bummed out when it became official with the rejection letter.  They were so easy going and normal.  I knew either second shift or third shift jobs would suck.  Gave me a new perspective that Shorewood wasn't so bad and never to speed in Greenfield.  Holy cow they were scary.  

When I volunteered for the 2004 presidential campaign, one of the women running the Milwaukee office said that there was this North shore group meeting up at I believe City Market at the time. I went there that night and listened to the people talking.  The precinct captain seemed nice and he wanted us to provide our emails to keep in touch with updates and I gave them mine. I wasn't sure why the woman at the headquarters wanted me to come. I didn't live in the area, but the people seemed nice.  I did get a few assignments in the area and people were really pleasant.  It was a good experience and after Kerry lost, I still got emails from the precinct captain about things that people in the community could do to make things better by supporting local candidates.  I thought maybe I should unsubscribe from this email because well, I didn't live in the area, but I kind of missed the emails because the precinct captain was pretty funny in his emails.  

About 7 years ago, I found the nail salon that had really good prices.  I normally don't expect anyone to talk to me other than the people that work there. I came in one day and some woman was having her bridal party get their nails done.  The bride was buying everyone coffee and she asked me if I wanted anyone. I said no thank you but I thought it was nice. I miss that salon.  The owner did my nails around the holidays before Covid hit and he was so surprised that I drove out from West Allis to come in.  I said he had good reviews and I read a nice story about when he first opened up the salon.  His son was a little surly but the owner and his wife were wonderful to anyone who came in. He was actually taking his dog for chemo and was going to spend New Years enjoying his poor sick fur baby.

It's nice that they seem to have a good community. I wish we had more of that in our neighborhood or in any neighborhood we wind up. It's like help your neighbors instead of using their washer and dryers.

It was funny when Lois found out that I was in her neighborhood getting my nails done, like why?  Did  I get permission from her?  Yes, that area has people who manage their piggy banks better than I do, but I'm allowed to go into any neighborhood I want. No danger of me moving in. 

I looked online at that one rental that was totally out of my price range.  It would eat up a paycheck and $20.  It was nice.  I thought I could walk to the library.  That's all I could do but it would be a nice walk.  

I can dream.  That's all I got.  It was a nice drive.