Friday, June 18, 2010

Neighborhood Watch

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the daily interactions with my neighbor, the 80-something old man next door. In the words of the seller, he "walks around the block about every 4 minutes."  He knows just about everything about everyone and either sits in the front of his house or walks to and from the corner.  He also wears only slippers.  To drive.  

In the 12 days that we have lived here, I have learned all about:
- the same-sex couple across the street and their two adopted children
- that nothing bad has happened to or in our house in the last 42 years that he's been watching it.
- that the owner two before us threw great parties and had a wonderful dog that he (our neighbor) let out during the day (he also offered to let our dogs out while we are at work if needed).
- that his grandchildren eat everything in his house when they come over, especially his 12 year old granddaughter (hobbies: baking; weight: 180 lbs).
- that both sets of urns in front of our house were used in movie sets; we should watch for them.
- that the only chemical that can kill the weed in the front yard is restricted (I'm to let him know if I can get a hold of any). 

Wednesday night we were sitting on the deck eating dinner when the doorbell rang.  Was it another new neighbor delivering baked goods to welcome us to the neighborhood?  Nope.  Was it the delivery man? Did we forget to sign the receipt?  Nope.  It was the old guy next door.  He came to tell us that he saw the guy who let his dog crap on our front lawn.  And that he'd had words with him on our behalf. 

It was at this point I realized this neighborly relationship is going to be more than just "hello" and listening to a daily slightly-too-long and repetitive story about something.  Given that I will be home all summer, I expect things to get interesting.  And so I've decided to share these delightful encounters with the world.  Hopefully you'll get a good chuckle once in a while.

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