You Don’t Have to Love This Town

So I bitch a lot about the town I live in, since I believe it’s justified. I never seem to run out of fodder to hurl against my insurmountable enemy. Yesterday, the rocks I found seemed larger than before.
I was driving my girlfriend’s son to the park, when, not a hundred feet from my apartment building, I passed five cop cars with shotgun wielding police officers. I didn’t know what was going on, all I knew was that they had their bandoliers out, and it couldn’t be good. By the time I even realized how bad a situation it must have been, I was already driving my vehicle through it. I’m not sure what the risk factor was, but considering how close a loaded shotgun was to the side of my car door, I’d say it was pretty high.
At the park there was the obligatory homeless man sleeping in the middle of the field, which of course went unnoticed until I had kicked my soccer ball over in his direction. Of course I could be wrong about his state. He could have been a blanketed corpse.
Later, when I picked up my girlfriend at work, I found she had been forced to sell a suit to one of the Bacon brothers, who are in the news every second day for being the target of hitmen. Police have issued numerous warnings that anyone in their proximity isn’t safe, because of the risk of being hit by stray bullets. I can think of at least two murders in the past few months that have been linked to rival gangs trying to take them out. So, to summarize: my girlfriend could have been shot because some asshole walked into her store.
I’m basically trying to raise a family here, and I have to worry about shit like stray bullets and stepping over homeless drug addicts. This is all happening in a town that doesn’t even have an Applebees. There is literally no advantage to my being here, and the disadvantages (such as being shot, or having your family shot) are huge.
Of course my family, my girlfriend’s family, etc. all live in the Fraser Valley, so even if I move one or two towns over, I risk being cut off from them. If you drew a radius for where I could move to and still be conveniently located in the proximity of our combined families, I’d still be living in a crime infested shithole filled with rednecks, and I’d still be no closer to an Applebees. So, I’m stuck that way. Also, I’m broke, and can’t find a job in the area that pays for shit, meaning I’ll never get the funds to escape anyway, so I’m stuck that way as well.
Joy.