Rich man. Poor man. FMMA is the kind of town where the rich rub shoulders with the poor. Actually, they don't. The rich definitely exist. With housing costs for a trailer starting at $400,000 and 3 bedroom homes with 2 car garages going for over $1M the rich certainly do exist. Apparently the average household income in the community is $170,000. My income is no where close to average and my two free-loading roommates don't contribute so I doubt we will ever see average. The poor tend to congregate in the downtown sections of town. Everything is close in the downtown area. There are a couple of shelters near by, restaurants, liquor stores and coffee shops. Social services is downtown and a few other areas and services that the homeless seem to congregate around. There even seems to be a known location for people who wish to drop off things for them--bottles, clothes, food and money. It isn't very far from my place. I can't see the spot but I can see the space over the spot. On almost any given hour of the day you can see people at the spot. Sitting on their tossed out lawn chairs, milk cartons and lazy boys huddled around each other smoking and drinking coffee. Watching each vehicle that goes by with a hopeful look in their eyes that the vehicle will stop and deliver them a morsel or dollar. It makes me sad to see them sit there. While this community is really great at donating to any cause on the go and fundraising evenings have been known to take in hundreds of thousands of dollars there is still a lack of services for the homeless. Most of them have mental demons of one kind of another they are dealing with. Some unfortunately fell into the FMMA "I have too much money so I'm going to spend it on drugs" issue that is prevalent among many here. they eventually either lose their job due to a positive test at work or they become unable to balance work and their new found addiction. What services do they need? More places for homeless to go at night and in the day, more social service workers directed towards the homeless. Will it ever happen? Probably not. I don't know how many there are in this spot but it obviously isn't enough to make anyone overly concerned. At least not to my knowledge.

This picture has nothing to do with the above rant, they are just a new pair of boots/shoes I bought recently. I took the picture so I could show my sister and get some potential ideas for decorating. Hope your week is going well. Let's send some more love south of the border ladies and gents. Jack is having a rough go of it at the moment. He's a trooper and handling it quite well but I know a few extra thoughts wouldn't hurt.