What The...?

On the way to work this morning, it's the first day of Spring. Still cold though, as it's still New England.

It's Wednesday, also known as "Hump Day", though 'tis a term I've never really cared for, it is the middle of the work week. The "light at the end of the tunnel" (aka Friday) is just perceptible. Monday lies two days in our wake.

So I depart Chez Sarge and I head to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts to purchase the Official Non-Alcoholic Beverage of the Chant du Départ (i.e. iced coffee) for to consume as I struggle through the opening hours at work.

As I dismount the vehicle, at the location (to put it in cop-speak) I notice that little still life depicted in today's opening photo. As it is prior to beverage purchase, I grumbled a bit and commented (sotto voce) as to the ancestry and mental acuity of the individual who left this debris in the parking lot. Meant no doubt to brighten my day. And give me fodder for a blog post. Said individual of questionable parentage and suspect intelligence is 1 for 2. Did not brighten my day, but here we are, posting about it. 1 for 2 in baseball is rather good. But don't ask Daryle, the man is indifferent to the national past time. Given the Red Sox marked lack of success lately, I cannot fault Daryle's judgement that much. But I digress.

Into Dunkin' Donuts I proceed and after the usual witty banter I normally exchange with the lovely ladies employed therein, I purchase my beverage of choice and head back to the Element for to head into work. Again I am confronted with that touching tableau of discarded lottery tickets and the expended, crumpled pack of cigarettes. At this point in time though I have had a sip or two of the magical iced elixir purveyed by the commercial descendants of Mr. Rosenberg, (a fellow New Englander I might add) and am prepared to be far more observant than I had been only moments earlier.

'Twas at this point gentle reader, that I positively identified the objects depicted herein as a discarded cigarette pack and various, diverse and sundry discarded, non-winning, lottery tickets. Prior to the coffee, the identity of those items was mere idle speculation, a passing glance was all that was afforded them. Now I could, at my leisure, study the offending items, and thus identify them beyond any reasonable doubt. After said positive ID was registered in the brain of Your Humble Scribe, a certain image came to mind from the depths of my memory banks. Those of a certain age may remember this - 

That would be the visage of Iron Eyes Cody, après surveying an American landscape littered with the debris of unthinking Philistines. Our world is their trash bin, sad to say. I didn't quite feel like that, "subdued rage" would have described my mental state a bit more accurately.

After yesterday's post this seemed to be a most fitting follow on. Not only can we (apparently) not be "nice" to each other in this country anymore, apparently it's also considered fashionable with a certain set to empty the detritus of one's automobile into the street or parking lot, whichever is most convenient for that group, thank you very much.

Another thing which set me off was the lottery tickets. I've heard the lottery referred to as "a tax on the stupid", while I'm not sure I'd go that far it's not that far from the mark. Perhaps it would be better to call it a "tax on the perpetually lazy and unemployed". Why do I get so spun up over this? Perhaps I have seen someone use their magic state-issued "credit card" (actually it's food stamps camouflaged as a credit card) to purchase food and then proceed to Customer Service to buy lottery tickets, "Oh, and a pack of Marlboro's too!", at my local grocery store one too many times. Perhaps.

Grrrr. I pay taxes to feed your lazy a$$ thus reducing my disposable income in order to provide you with disposable income to purchase cigarettes and lottery tickets. Grrrr. Then you dump the old cigarette pack and the non-winning lottery tickets in the parking lot on YOUR way to Dunkin' Donuts to buy coffee. Coffee which, I'm here to attest, is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, cheap. I suppose it could be worse, they could all be going to Starbucks to spend my tax dollars.

Now I'm not against assisting someone who is down on their luck and out of work. But someone who is in this condition and isn't cutting back where necessary, yeah, that burns my butt, just a little. The problem, as I see it, is that right now the country has far too many people content to sit back, suck on the government teat and let someone else do all the heavy lifting. And a certain political class which encourages them to do so.

Again, I personally have had enough, thank you very much. Rant complete, thank you for reading. Now move along folks, nothing to see here.

After I get more coffee, it's one of THOSE days...