Living? In a Gun Loving World.

After a couple of days of searching the "For Rent" section of the newspaper, I found a small one bedroom apartment one block off of the beach.  The apartment came with basic furniture and appliances, but I did have to buy a TV which I was able to purchase from a local hotel surplus that was replacing all of its room TVs.   The close proximity of the unit to the Atlantic Ocean provided natural AC  in the summer which resulted in a small monthly electric bill.   And since I didn't have a car, the apartments location a few steps away the main A1A strip, meant I had easy access to trolley and bus service up and down the beach drive.  For someone in my economic situation, the apartment I found was perfect for my needs.

Despite my attempts to keep a low profile, it didn't take long for lovers of the Nazi state to find me.  My first antagonist was a young messed up man who lived in a adjacent building.  It wasn't long after I moved in, that this person began sitting outside his back porch with an amerikan flag above his head and a high powered hunting rifle by his side.  This man never missed an opportunity to tell me how much he loved the military and hated me.  It was just like being back in Rolla, MO.

On some mornings, I would go out my front door, go across the street to a Seven-Eleven store and purchase a newspaper.  As soon as my gun loving neighbor found out that I would go out in the morning for a paper, he would position himself on his front porch with his hunting rifle and wait for me to go walking by on my way to the store.  And every morning as I walked by, I would wonder if that was the morning the nut would get up enough courage to shot me in the back.  Is amerika a great place to live, or what?!

My neighbor in the adjacent apartment was a little more direct with his death threats.  One of the two young men living next door would stand outside my back door at night a fire several rounds from a handgun into the air. I remember one evening a had a guest in my place when the nightly fireworks started.  The person just sat there frozen with fright and then was afraid to leave out of fear of mistakenly being shot.  After about a half and hour of silence, the person got up and left my apartment.  For some reason, they never came back. So between my freedom loving neighbor on my right and my fascist loving neighbor on my left,  I had an interesting time in my new apartment.

My adjacent neighbor exhibited the type of thinking that the current crop of concealed weapon carriers exhibit.  Since shooting me outright wouldn't look good for the fascist state, my neighbors tried to create a scenario to justify shooting me.   It was about one AM on a Saturday morning when I was abruptly awoken by a blaring TV.  The loud noise continued so I banged on the adjoining wall with no success.  Finally, I put on some clothes and went out my front door to the front door of the adjacent apartment.  Through the apartment window I could see the TV, but I couldn't see any people.  I pounded on the door, shouted out a few times, but there was no response.  Finally, I decided to go around to the back door which was poorly lit.
I approached the door and was about to knock on it when I noticed the door was ajar and open by about two inches.  I called out several times and was met by silence.  Not a sound came from the apartment other than the loud TV. The obvious conclusion was that no one was home and it was tempting to want to walk in and turn the TV off.  However, I decided against that action and started to turn to leave when out of the darkness in the apartment, I heard a voice address me.  Someone was in there waiting for me!  I responded to the darkness that I was trying to sleep and would appreciate it if they would turn the TV down.  I then went back to my apartment.  A couple of minutes later the TV was turned off.  How convenient - a blaring TV in the middle of the night, no one home, an open door and a known gun toting neighbor!   Smelled like a trap to me.  Who says gunning toting people wouldn't create an incident to justify shooting someone.  Why it must be the fascist state version of "Stand Your Ground!"