NUTHIN' BETTER

what's more fun than having great neighbors?? on a whim, bc3 and i invite over judy and family, dawn and baby gwen, mee ma, and ry ry for a friday night bbq complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salad and 'smores. what a lovely way to spend an evening! especially after a pretty trying week at work.

not that i don't have some crazy neighbors... there are the "punks" across the street. one morning we woke up to a tent pitched in the side yard. we sat at our bay window watching with rapt attention waiting to see who would come out.. boyscouts earning their camping badges, perhaps?? no, pre-adult girls, half naked and the punk kid emerged...also the home where my neighbor lisa and i found a used prophylactic on the sidewalk one day while walking with our 4 young daughters. "what's that mommy??"

let's see.. there's also "barefoot dad" who we also call "angry dad", and at times he's also nicknamed "shirtless dad." and lastly he is also called "cool dad"... "cool" said with a very metered amount of irony. there's plenty of occasions when he is all four at once! it's clear that he is multitalented.

the same punk house has jake the dog whom we are continually rescuing. i'll say, "honey, jake's outside, go get him!!" we find him wandering the sidewalks, head hung low, a gentle beast. he's the sweetest dog in the universe and the punks really don't deserve him considering they don't even know he's missing when he's gone.

there's foreclosure house down the block.. grass knee high, their front gutter was hanging off the roof for a week and rather than put it back up, they just pulled it off! who needs a gutter anyhow?? the house is in foreclosure! why keep it nice for the jerk off's who'll get it next? foreclosure house is the home to some mean teenage bastards who rev their obnoxious cars up and down the street, stand in the middle of the road as if they're entitled to that square foot of street beneath their feet. enjoy it now! that's where you'll be sleeping when the bank owns your house. maybe the lawn will finally get mow'd.

and lastly there is curmudgeonly old dude down the block.. he's loads of fun. he likes to bitch and moan about the bushes that lap over into the sidewalk, the birds who shit in his backyard, the pollen in the air, the blue skies, sun, rainbows, kittens and flowers.

so i realize good neighbors are few and far between. bad ones throw beer bottles on your lawn and bring down your property value.