whooooaa!

Maybe you wonder what kind of neighborhood I live in. For the sake of conversation, let's say you do, cause I have to have a reason to blog about my neighbors. Anyway, I live in a regular ol' neighborhood. It is not ritzy, it is not run-down. It is not trendy at all. The houses aren't interesting architecturally, or quaint, or even old. It is a regular old subdivision that was built in the early 90's. And it looks like it was built in the early 90's. The neighborhood IS pretty quiet, though, and all the neighbors keep to themselves.

When I say "keep to themselves", what I mean is they "pretend they can't see me." I don't mind though, I don't like making small talk.

People don't move around too often, like the neighbors did when I lived in Tempe. Since I've been here, only two houses have changed owners. One neighbor who lived down the street moved, and the cats who lived right next door to me moved.

The people next door weren't problematic at all. If anything, I think that we were the crazy neighbors in the equation.

Before the neighbor and his family moved, they had a yard sale. At this yard sale, they had their pet bird tagged and put on the table.

Now, a different couple and their dog moved in. I don't really talk to them, either, but I was quite happy that they had a little yappy dog. Not because I love hearing dogs bark, but because if their dog is out there barking, they will never give me a hard time about my dog being out there barking. It is a lot better than the previous neighbors who didn't complain, but did let their daughter scream and throw sticks at and feed rocks to my dogs (in addition to SELLING THEIR PET AT A YARD SALE. What in the heck.)

There is another dude, who lives a few houses down, that is constantly standing out in the street. We don't get a lot of through traffic, so he's not endangering his life or anything, but it is strange that he is always out there. Sometimes when I drive by, he will be standing out in the middle of the street, talking to someone else who is just standing in the middle of the street. I thought chilling out was what yards and porches were for, but apparently I was wrong. In my neighborhood, the chilling out happens in the road.

Not that he is just standing out there being a lazy bum. No, this dude is industrious. He spends all his time in the street, but when he is out there, he keeps the stuff clean. He picks up every little piece of leaves, gravel, litter (not that there is any litter ever, since he is on the lookout). I think he sweeps up and down it everyday. If there is a storm, and branches fall, he will pick up every little speck of bark.

Whenever I see him, he is either holding one of these in his hand, or I can see it laying in his yard with his other obsessive street cleaning tools, waiting to get picked back up:



He has the yellow one, in case you are curious. You can get a case of 72 of them for 94 cents each. I like to think he has a case of them in the garage.