The Legend Lives On

 

Yes indeed, the Edmund Fitzgerald. Inspired by VM, check it out:

There was a time when I lived in Windsor, Ontario, I know, brave, like a town in Belgium the Allies bombed and was never built back better. Whatever, we'd watch the big ships on the Detroit river from our apartment on Assumption. Quite a thing. 

On topic, HRH EII visited Windsor and remarked, "What a large city, I had no idea." She was looking down Tecumseh, I think, towards the Motor City.

It's Coming Back, Man. No, idiot, it's not

Reliable sources tell me America's onetime automotive capital's been reimagined as some kind of WholeFoods hipster enclave, a bucolic rustic, socially hi-fenced preserve returned to nature where factories, making things, once held sway. 

Of course all the people living in the Preserve hate the working class and people of color, and vote socialist. How very odd, and I'm sure the feeling's mutual.

Reverie Over,

LSP

Mighty Hunter

A seasoned veteran of the intelligence community threatens to visit for a pig hunt in April and I think his method goes roughly like this. Wait for a massive tusker to charge you and then, calmly, deliberately, shoot it with a .357 Magnum revolver. Probably a Colt Python. In the meanwhile, LSP stands back with a 30 of some sort and a sharp kukri. 

LL Visits Texas

With that in mind, here's a typical hunting tale. 

As I patrolled along a hi-fenceline the dog came to a point, all attention, and there, 150 yards downhill to my left was a giant black pig, black hair bristling menacingly in the hot white light of a Texan morning.

Someone's Pig Hunt Gone Wrong

Fast as you like and maybe faster, up comes my AR, red dot hold on the shoulder of the pig, breathe, squeeze the trigger and... nothing. Try it again, is the gun broken? and... nothing. A split second of consternation.

Random Pictograph Somewhere in Texas

Then thumb-off the safety, fire, and the hog's running like a speeding maglev, barreling through the dystopian ruins of Detroit towards the Windsor tunnel. That one got off to fight again another day. 

Maybe this good fortune will change sometime soon.

Attention to detail,

LSP

Detroit House

Sensible Flag

Marthieu425 took exception to my post "Come on, Move to Detroit." He had 

this to say: "It's the most culturally diverse area in the United States. You need some culture sir. Maybe you should come visit before you comment on how "post apocalyptic" it is. It's coming back." Good call, Marthieu425. 


So off I went for a well needed dose of "culture" and who knows, maybe I'd find the Motorway City was miraculously "coming back" since I was there last August.

Red's House - no guns allowed...

Red's place on Commonwealth was better. No upended sofa on the front porch, well done, though the ceiling was still down in the "dining room" and the kitchen didn't seem to have any utilities. No change there.

Not much change anywhere, that I could see, with the exception of "Slows" which cooks good BBQ (the place was packed) and the best pint, maybe the only real pint, of ale I've had in the U.S. Not that I'm some sort of beer technologist.

But enough of that, here's some holiday snaps.

Nice

Occupied, oddly enough

Don't go in there

Greening of America

High Density

Strip Mall

Where are all the cars?

Deja Vu

Back to the Garden

Good old CPA building

No trains, sadly

There goes another one

Outlaws

Logan's Run

Back in the Dominion

Detroit catastrophe theorists will be mad at me for not taking any shots of spectacular brick mansions falling into ruin. There's plenty.

But is the place "coming back"? I'd say large swathes of the city have a post-apocalyptic, Nagasaki, forty years on, kind of feel.

You be the judge.

God bless,

LSP

Come on. Move to Detroit.

Detroit

It's tempting to write something about the crazed Norwegian Templar(?!) and the Jihad, or Amy Winehouse, or the peculiar speech delivered by Barak 'He's less of a man than Putin' Obama last night. 

Evil Madman

But the recent 'cash incentives to live downtown' caught my eye.

'Cash incentives to live downtown?' you ask, 'Where?'

Motor City

Detroit, of course. Under a new $4 million scheme to revitalize Motown, first time home buyers will get a $20,000 forgivable loan and renters a grant of $3,000 spread over two years. That's not all, existing owners living in Detroit's post-apocalyptic urban wasteland will be eligible for a $5000 'exterior improvement' grant.

Tempted? Neither am I. Though my old friend 'Red'  (why didn't he get in trouble for firing off a shotgun in an abandoned house last year - why?) might think of applying for the 'home improvement' money.

I'll suggest it when I visit next week before crossing the river to Canada and the comparative safety of Windsor.

Pray for rain.

LSP

Down by the River

Visited 'Red's' sister's place, which is just off the Detroit river in downtown(ish) Windsor; it's a converted attic with a neat deck overlooking the rooftops and trees. Beautiful and remarkably lush after Texas.

She shares it with her 13 year old son, Thomas. He's been learning a kind of 'Britspeak' in my honour and says "Good Lord!" after hairy scrapes on Halo 3. I've taught him that garage is pronounced garridge. We'll see if that sticks.

Regardless, a few more days here then it's back to Texas, the countryside and searing heat; it'll be good to get back though I have to say I'll miss Canada -- a bit of a cross between England and the U.S., I always think.

Cheers and belated blessings for the Feast of the Assumption.

LSP

Motor(way) City

Life has a strange way of sending me to Detroit, but I'll spare you the backstory... regardless, after the trial of modern interstate air travel -- not dissimilar to catching a bus from Victoria Station to Canterbury in the '80s in terms of time and discomfort -- I clambered off the plane and into Motor City to see an old friend before going across the river to Canada.

'Red' was using a crowbar to jimmy up great slabs of concrete from his back yard when I arrived. He's fixing up his house you see, which is hard work at the best of times; till then it'll be a little bit Fight Club -- the house should look good when it's done though.

Remarkable city, Detroit; I'm in Windsor now, but if I get the chance I'll venture back across the river for a tour and some pictures, hopefully before the place reverts to wilderness.

Missing guns and horses -- must check out the local range, don't think there's much of a riding opportunity here, annoyingly.

Cheers,

LSP