ready to blow

Another beautiful day and more violence inching its way closer to us. Our car was parked in front of our house from 8p -9:30 this evening when the drivers side window was smashed. This was the second car vandalism in front of our house in 10 days. Previously a Honda’s rear window was violently broken.

Since Joel was heading out later to meet some friends, we  didn’t bother to put the car  in the garage.  So, within 2 hours of parking, it was vandalized. Oh well, It could have been worse, at least we didn’t get caught in any gunfire!

Well, actually, it did get a little worse.   Part II came, after cleaning up the mess, parking the car in the garage, filing a police report, and posting to our bernal safe watch list.  Since  the car was full of broken glass, Joel decided  to make the trek out via public transit.  This meant he was hopping the bus to the BART station.

About 15-20 minutes after Joel left, I received a rather disturbing text message from him.  It appeared on my phone, next to my keyboard at exactly  the same time as I was browsing CL for possible neighborhood exit strategies.   Joel’s text message:

"not my evening. Now there is a guy on the bus threatening the driver claiming he has a gun. Bus is stopped."

Not wanting to disrupt the bus with a loud ring, I texted back. We exchanged rapid fire messages for several minutes. I was trying to asses the situation for a potential call to the police (for the second time in an hour)  while Joel was trying to communicate the goings on as they happened.

As it turned out, the bus driver literally threw the guy off the bus. Apparently  as this was happening, half the passengers on the bus had already called the police.  A block or so after the man was thrown off,  all the passengers gazed out the bus windows towards the west.  A loud fight was occurring across the street, blood spilled all about.  Still we texted until Joel got to his destination,  already too burned out to hear Tomas DJ a set at midnight. 

Too much for one evening.  The violence in our neighborhood feels like it is still escalating at least  as much,  if not more so than when I posted about this issue, as did Joel,  earlier this year.

As it stands,  the lure of other locations already tease us. Right about now is when I recall exactly how I felt when I expressed that, " apart from random suicide attacks,  Tel Aviv felt a lot safer than the US."

Not sure how others feel in ‘safer’ neighborhoods in SF, around the bay and country, but it does feel like this place is going to blow at any moment. The tension outside is so intense, I feel it so  strongly as I just walk down the street, bike around or pick something up at the store. People are on edge like never before and they’re ready to pop.