I'm not sure if I saw a homeless lady with a nursing baby last week.

She's in the camp with the lady that shouts at me sometimes for using a headlight at night. They've been there about a year; the crew that was there got cleaned out sub rosa while all eyes were in Santa Ana. In typical LA fashion, the LAPD went "no one is looking crack skulls" and got rid of a semi-functional community of squatters, some of which had been there since the late '80s. And in typical LA fashion, about a week later their entire population had been replaced by the folx kicked out of Orange County.

This didn't make the news, of course. So much doesn't.

I'm not sure what effect the powers-that-be thought it would have; clearing out the people who had adapted to the city and replacing them with refugees has had the result of radically increased trash, radically increased fecal coliform in the river, and a radical increase in attitude. The folx that were here mostly kept to themselves (the sane ones anyway) while the folx that replaced them want you to know they resent your presence at their personal nadir. So i don't know what to do about the lady who may or may not have a babe-in-arms. Because I know that as a denizen of the LA river she's one of the apex homeless. Compared to the failwhales who set up shop under an overpass on the freeway with four lanes of 70mph traffic on either side of them they're fuckin' Bear Grylls. And I know that should DSHS get involved things aren't necessarily going to get any better, DSHS in LA being what it is. But I also know Frogtown outdoors in August is a shitty place to be 2 months old.

So I will probably continue to do nothing.

The area north of them is full of better-adapted folx. The Army Corps of Engineers has had that section closed off for three years now (because they're idiots and assholes - Rick Perry might not remember which three agencies to eliminate but for me it's Army Corps of Engineers, ICE and TSA in that order) so they're doing shit like tapping lampposts and running extension cords out to their camps. The area south of them is temporarily full of better-adapted folx because the Army Corps of Engineers had that section closed off for a year so they could dig a 6x6 hole. But the homeless got sick of their shit so they tore down the fences. So now more people ride through that section than before. Which will probably cause a migration north, which will cause population pressure, which will likely cause the whole river to burn again because they tend to light camp fires and then pass out and then my way is blocked by firetrucks.

Here's a picture of Lady Gaga wearing a 128ct Tiffany diamond 3.28 miles away.

I bought Frank Meza a votive last week. I was going to light it for him on my way to work but I've spent too much time getting the bike rebuilt and I've been running late. So I was going to light it for him on the way home but it fell out of my bag in the bathroom and shattered all over the floor. I gotta buy groceries today; I think I should buy another.