It's been a fateful 10 days here on West 8th Street in Davenport.
A block to the South and a block to the East one man got stabbed in the chest during a fight with another over a girlfriend.
From what we've been able to find out, he'll be "ok".
We've had some more snow here and I have to tell you that it's been a few winters since we've had so much snow on the ground. The temperatures have been sub zero for their lows up until the last couple of days and some days never got into the double digits. But we are promised by Teresa and Terry that a warm up is on its way on Monday and that we'll get might close into the 40's. Melting will surely take place then and perhaps some of the Southern facing areas will lose much of its winter blanket.
Your blogger and faithful West 8th Street reporter admits to having a bad case of cabin/spring fever and can't wait to be able to sit comfortably outdoors with only a t-shirt and shorts on. Alas, I know it just might be a while until that happens but in March we've been known to experience every form of weather possible. Hopefully some of that will be something in the 70's.
But for now, my only day off from work this week, I have things to take care of. My front sidewalk (which faces North) is still covered from our last snowfall so that is on my list of to do items.
There are other things needing taken care of and I have a list of them sitting in front of me now.
One thing I should mention is that the 1st Ward Alderman, Mr. VanFossen has recently spent some time in the county pokey, arrested for allegedly assaulting his "estranged" wife and then after being released from custody the next day he "allegedly" violated an order of protection she had secured against him and was returned to the county jail post haste.
This blogger doesn't know if he is actually guilty or not of the stated crimes but the hub bub around town has labeled him as a drunkard and a fiend.
Mr. VanFossen is a retired Davenport police detective and is quite familiar with the goings on of the police department. For him to make such grievous errors in judgement one can only assume that either he didn't care about the punishment he had to know would be delivered or he truly is innocent of the charges. Either way, our fair city is abuzz with news about him and his "antics".
Hope you all are having a good weekend!
Good bye from West 8th Street in Davenport, Iowa.....for now.

This Week on West 8th Street

It's been a cold, cold week here on West 8th Street. We've had temperatures as low as -11 degrees F. at night according to my home thermometer. A couple of days ago we also had about a 4 inch snowfall that "cleaned" up the neighborhood by adding a new white layer.

People have been hunkering down trying to wait out the frigid temps and I haven't seen too many of them outdoors except for the brave souls coming out to shovel their walks.
We had an "environmental" inspection this last Tuesday and quite a few of the rental properties on W. 7th St. were sited for various infractions such as abandoned vehicles, parking on bare ground, improperly disposed of trash and the like. Letters were sent out to the tenants and the landlords threatening fines and court costs if the violations were not taken care of.
Some of the problems are due to the cold temps and the fact that people just don't want to be outside at all. Some of the neighbors were, and still are at this writing, pulling their cars right up to the back door of the house to shorten the walk inside.
Of course, this whole problem will be solved with the thaw and spring rains, otherwise the newly trodden driveways will be come quagmires of mud.
We still have some graffiti left over from last summer that needs to be taken care of. Nobody wants to see that type of special vandalism in their neighborhoods and West 8th Street residents are no different.
I hope to be writing to you again soon about the warmer temps and melting of the snow here on West 8th Street.