Are We But Kissing a Pig?

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"You can clean up a pig, put a ribbon on its tail, spray it with perfume, but it is still a pig." 

You can even put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig... and you get really messy when you try to kiss it!

(Surprising resemblance to "Yellow," don't you think? Paint that snout and pucker up!)

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Such is the state of affairs at 810 Fishback Street, the property infested with inhabited by the BDGs, "Red," "Green," and "Yellow." For the last two months construction has continuously proceeded next door. The sounds of saws, hammers, shovels, staple guns, compressors, etc. have issued unabated - and adulterated with the always-on strains of Mega 100.1 FM or the monotonous foreign language announcers of World Cup Soccer.

For two months the BDGs have been pouring money into the small house, into which they have been cramming three human {cough} occupants and several dogs / cats / birds / (fish?) for many years. There must have been an awful lot of deferred maintenance built up while they ignored their homeowner duties in favor of their (illegal) nonresidential activities.

When I moved next to "Red," "Yellow," and "Green" three years ago, their constant refrain was, liberally translated, "We is so poor." So poor were they that they sent a confidence woman over to con me out of a few bucks for steel stakes to prop up the falling-down fence they had destroyed with (illegal) runoff from their property. They have since come up with the money to replace most of the fence EXCEPT for the worst portion, hidden from their view behind (illegally) hammered up plywood and tarps they hung in an (illegal) shanty shed. The whole "fence thing" helped me "cotton" fully to their sociopathic personality disorders.

In February of this year, they complained to their freebie homeowners insurance lawyer that the economy was so bad they had to shut down their (illegal and uninsured) home business operation. It must have been running at a deficit for quite a while. Of course, assets of every kind and description are still unsold and still (illegally) on the property.

So, where did they obtain the money to:

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  do landscaping?
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  rebuild a screened porch out back?
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  re-roof the house?
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  put on window sunguards?
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  install new vinyl siding with insulation?
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  as well as
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  keep going to Costco (on an invalid California Sellers Permit?) ?
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  pay their mortgage (full equity refinance in 2007) ?
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  keep gas in their big-ass vehicles?

One guess is, perhaps they sold their Tracy "retail route" to the next generation of roach coach operators. (Several other possibilities come to mind, as well.)

As far as curb appeal is concerned, "Yellow," "Green," and "Red" have done a bang-up job on the house.

Front - New roof, siding, sunguards, and plantings.

Back - Screened porch, less lattice still.

(It even has a shelf for the rock speaker - Auntie Lyn fairly squealed with excitement!)

If the property is indeed being prepped for rental (ha!), the BDGs must surely realize that a non-redneck renter would not touch a disaster such as is in the business yard. The progress the occupants made with the house reminds me of the passage about "whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness." (Matt. 23: 27)

A more modern, colloquial version is, "Putting lipstick on a pig."

To cease running the catering truck(s) last February is one very small part of abating the illegal use of the property. The much larger part is to remove the illegal mobile home, demolish all the illegal structures, and haul away all the illegal trailer trash.

Shanty shed housing ice machine, upright freezer, refrigerator, and outdoor radio.

 

All the rest of the trailer trash... (at least, the inanimate trash.)

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