Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Strange Days

Is it just me or are strange things happening around your neighborhood as well?

A few days ago, my family was out on our after dinner stroll, this time all five of us, when we passed by a neighbor's house. My husband knows this neighbor and this man waved us down to his home, (his driveway is long and on an incline, therefore, we had to walk "down"). He seemed very friendly, even overly so, and that's when I saw the bottle of beer in his hand. Bummer. I'm not at all comfortable with people who have been drinking and here we were with all my kids as well. The neighbor wanted us all to come in to see his newly remodeled kitchen. Apparently, Todd had installed a counter top for this neighbor years ago (back when he was a self-employed cabinet maker) and now that counter top has been removed and replaced, along with other changes to the kitchen. It was really nice and we all enjoyed seeing his home. But ... this guy was drunk, at least he was a happy drunk. He tried to call his wife out to meet us but apparently she was, how did he put it ... "Oh, she's gone," he said, and we guessed she had already passed out from her evening imbibing. It was only 8:00 pm for goodness sake! Anyway, we politely left as soon as we could and when we got home, we had a really good discussion with the kids about his behavior. We discussed how we shouldn't talk bad about him but also how drinking affects your behavior, etc. It turned out to be a good discussion but I really didn't expect the night to turn out like it did. We saw him again tonight, wielding a weed-eater and we were hoping he was sober.

A few weeks ago, we went to get milk at our favorite pharmacy and we saw that the front door was all closed up with wood and the glass was gone. When we asked what had happened, they said a lady had pulled up in front of the store and stepped on the gas instead of the brake. She was in her 70's and had a small dog on her lap. Fortunately, no one was really injured, except for a man who was hit by a side mirror, scraping his arm. Stupid and strange.

We had a garage sale over Memorial Day. It went reasonably well, had good weather and most people bought something. My son did nearly all the work, bless him. However, our first customer was a family of ethnic origin, bringing with them a small boy wearing a face mask and a smaller girl with sniffles. Ugh! Why on earth did they feel the need to drag these sick kids to our sale I don't know. I took their money and after they left, I put the bills in a baggie and sprayed Lysol in it and let if dry. I know, I know, I'm paranoid but after they left, we went inside and listened to the local news on the radio. They announced the first swine flu case in our county. Great, just great. My husband said, "Yeah, the second case just left our garage sale!" I was not amused. Strange, stupid and sick!

The second customer that day was an older guy that pulled up in an old sedan with signs on the door protesting something or other. He bought a bunch of children's books and said he was a child psychiatrist for the police department. Then he said he had a stuffed bear in his car named after a character Elvis played in some movie. He was jittery and made me really nervous, especially after hearing about Elvis. Oooh, boy, was I glad when he left.

Fortunately, we had fairly normal people after that disturbing morning. We even had a guy buy our pedestal sink for $5.00. We were selling it so cheap because we got it free from another neighbor about 4 streets over last year. It turns out that this man grew up not far from where I did and we talked a fair amount. Too much, apparently, for his wife as she finally went out to their car and started the engine. He gave us the money for the sink and asked it he could come back later to pick it up. We said that was fine. And then he never showed. We still have the sink AND his money. It didn't feel right but I wasn't sure what to do. Then I decided I'd donate the money he gave us to a local charity, which DID feel right. But now we have to store the sink.

Perhaps June will be more normal - unless normal no longer mean what I think it means.

1 comment:

jugglingpaynes said...

Meh. Normal is overrated. ;o)
I've heard that normal people don't homeschool.

I would have been reeeal nervous about the drunk neighbor. And the child psychiatrist with the Elvis teddy bear. He was more worrisome to me just because he shared that information with you. There is small talk and then there is creepy.

At least you had some good teachable moments from your experiences! You can check off health and safety education. :o)

Peace and Laughter,
Cristina