Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has had a rough couple of weeks.

First, he had to fly to Cuba for cancer surgery. (You mean 11 years in power and countless billions in oil revenue, he hasn’t built a decent cancer hospital in Caracas? ¡Qué lástima!). Then, he lost his country’s retail foothold in the tiny yanqui paraíso we call Decatur.

All of which is an unnecessarily confusing way of saying that the Citgo on West Howard Avenue at Atlanta Avenue is changing its retail affiliation. Yesterday, a small construction crew began removing the station’s Citgo markings and replacing them with Valero decor.

Citgoing, going gone.

A better blogger might have walked across the street to ask the station’s owners why they’re leaving Citgo to become a Valero, but why risk getting hit by a car when I can settle for a stupid Hugo Chávez reference?

DWAFD sends in this message originally posted on the Winnona Park message board.  Not sure of the author.

Sometime late last night or early this morning, a car was stolen on the 100 block of Shadowmoor; the victim had left the car unlocked. Also, during the same period, the CITGO station on the corner of Commerce and E. College was burglarized. The theives somehow jimmied the window behind the ice machine outside and they ran off with the store’s suppply of cigarettes.

As the neighborhood watch person for this area, I once again caution never to leave the car (or garage windows or doors) unlocked for any reason an also consider purchasing an anti-theft device for the car. Winnona Park is normally a safe neighborhood so incidents like this are very disturbing. Let’s keep an eye out for each other; we can’t watch 24 hours a day but always call the police if you see or hear anything suspicious. I’d rather they investigate and find nothing wrong then to ignore it and find out that a crime has been committed.