Where the action is

Our Medicare consultant came tonight to sign us up for next year. He, like many of our friends, grew up in our new Boston neighborhood, technically Dorchester. He asked if we had heard about the shooting last week. So I googled it. Yup. It was in the parking lot of our new, conveniently walkable, CVS. A young man was shot critically in the head at around 7 PM. It was election night and all voters were rerouted to the polls through the alley behind our newly beloved restaurant Ester. The press claimed no voter was deterred by the crime scene. I guess we should be comforted that the police think it was gang related. Blake suggests that we should check what the colors are of each gang and be sure that Andy and I where everyone's colors. George did Advise us not to move to the murder capital of Boston. That we convinced him it was a lively and up-and-coming place. How much worse can it be in the lower East side of Manhattan in the late 70's?

http://www.dotnews.com/2014/man-seriously-injured-lower-mills-shooting

We have considered wild gunshots when thinking about the layout of our new Boston apartment. We are on the first floor and some of the apartment is even below grade, which we became very used to in NYC. We'll be watching TV in a section of the living room with no windows. In the bedroom, our heads will be in such a position that any shooter will have to be hanging on the side of the building and shoot straight down to reach us.
We even bought used ammunition canisters (maybe a foot and a half tall and very narrow) to be flower holders. They are in the living room windows and presumably are strong enough to stop any stray bullet. Actually the main purpose of the containers, found on Craigslist, is to hold very large branches, flowers or bamboo that will act as a natural screen from the outside world. I found an amazing long branch with round, bright green, prickly pods. The flower market guy assured me that the pods would last for months. They are very dramatic and effectively blur the sight line. Unfortunately the pods have begun to burst, spilling out milkweed like seeds. Think the flower market will take them back since they may assume they were for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which gives me the credentials to shop at the market.
Maybe the gangs will notice that the containers are stamped DOD and avoid us altogether. But someone did suggest that maybe they would want to break in and steal said ammunition. As the Medicare guy said, "We are moving to where the action is."