Category: neighborhood

Posted in neighbor, neighborhood

The glass is all gone

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I’ve written about this fun neighbor before. In previous episodes, he tore all the sod out of his front yard, letting a field of weeds replace the grass. He then installed a string of thirty-two solar lights across the length of his property. He even drilled holes in the driveway and set the light spikes through the concrete.

Well, early this morning, the big dog and I noticed that this guy had taken all the glass panels out of every solar light spike. The lights worked, but all the glass was gone from every one! Just when I think it can’t get any weirder, it gets weirder.

I’m starting to think I should say something to someone, but I have no idea who. Keep in mind that this person lives across the street from someone who has a Ghostbuster vehicle parked in their driveway.

Posted in neighborhood

The mailbox didn’t have a chance

Posted on by William Douthwaite

How fast do you think this person was driving?

The first thing that caught my eye was the uprooted mailbox post. It was completely lifted up out of the ground. I thought, “Who would do that?”

Then I saw the car or truck parts along the tire track in the lawn. Someone took the curve too fast, swerved onto the grass, and took out that mailbox.

But where was the mailbox? I spotted it up by the house, about twenty yards away. Wow, they must have been moving!

I know the guy who used to live in this house. Used to means I don’t know what happened to him. I used to see him all the time, riding his bike around the neighborhood. He either died or is living in a care facility. A company cares for the lawn each week. But no sign of him.

If someone put their mind to it, they wouldn’t have much trouble finding the offending vehicle that picked up a few dents and dings and left a few trim parts behind.

We’ll see if anyone notices or cleans up the yard in the next few days. It’s on an isolated section of a road I often walk on in the morning, easily overlooked. I’ll also keep an eye out for the rest of the truck or car.

It could have been worse. Some folks build bricks around their mailbox posts for these kinds of moments.

Posted in neighbor, neighborhood

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

Posted on by William Douthwaite

…someone lost a bet and had to put the fuzzy flamingoes in their front yard this year.

…someone cleaned out their attic and found some long lost yard decorations. “Hey, remember these? Everyone said we had the best yard in the neighborhood!”

…the HOA went belly-up so anything goes.

…someone up the street died. Whoever cleaned out her house left stuff like this out on the curb. One person’s trash…

…my neighbor put out the first decorations on our block. While some are still trying to coax a few more days from Halloween pumpkins, many have started their Christmas festivities. Less than 25 yards from my house, I have the pleasure of seeing these fuzzy flamingoes every day. This is their first year along this neighbor’s driveway. They are an omen of what’s to come. Soon this neighbor will fill his yard with a hideous hodgepodge of lights, trees, ornaments, snowmen, and other Christmas characters.

Posted in neighborhood

Halloween around the neighborhood

Posted on by William Douthwaite

On my many walks around the neighborhood, I captured the variety of Halloween yard decorations. Here are a few observations:

  • Pumpkins ruled this year. Creative jack-o-lanterns abound. Most are happy, some are scared, and of course, some are cats.
  • Creepy decorations include the scary clown, a floating hand, zombies, and a giant skeleton trying to control a couple of dog skeletons. (Skeletons were a close second to pumpkins this year.)
  • Cute ghosts and Buc-ee round out this year’s decorations near us and around our son’s Texas neighborhood.

So where do you store all this stuff the other eleven months of the year?

Posted in neighbor, neighborhood, walking

What will it be: a new route or the same old streets?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Purple pumpkins? I never noticed those before.

When I take my Great Dane out for a walk in the morning, we have a choice. We can walk the usual two-and-a-half mile loop around our neighborhood, or we can explore some rarely walked cross streets. Regardless of which I choose, there’s much to notice.

If we take the longer route, I notice those things that have changed. Curbside trash announces a remodeling project. Seasonal holiday decorations appear each week. “For Sale” signs appear overnight. A carefully balanced pile of shingles precedes the arrival of roofers. That must a have been a great party in front of the vacant lot filled with beer cans and food wrappers. Out-of-state license plates reveal who’s got company. We know where every dog lives along this route.

On the other hand, if we zig-zag through some of the cross streets, we’ve got a new collection of houses, cars, and yards to notice. I see an older home with a one-car garage. There’s a driveway with two antique cars. Folks who just moved in have a mountain of cardboard boxes stacked up at the end of the driveway. I can see the backs of the houses I frequently pass on the longer route. The barks of dogs inside these houses sound unfamiliar.

No matter which route or direction I choose, I will notice something interesting to take a picture of and write about. I will notice something fascinating about a home I walked by a hundred times or the first time. I will hear cars, dogs, music, air conditioning units, children, birds, and sprinklers. Some I expect. Some surprise me.

Posted in neighborhood

Another one bites the dust

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Many of my neighbors put these reflector sticks in their yards by the edge of the road. They believe these sticks will keep cars and trucks from leaving ruts in their lawn. As you can see by this picture, they don’t work. (The big dog can also attest to that.)

On streets where a new home is being built, neighbors are mortified by the possibility that the subcontractors are going to park on the lawn. Your experience may be different, but I rarely see that happen.

I laugh when I see front yards with nothing but weeds put these sticks out. You’ll spend money on a dozen reflectors, but not a penny on lawn care?

Trucks cannot keep their wheels out of the corner lots like the one above. Is the turn too tight for them? I don’t know. I suspect the drivers don’t care that much.

Your lawn might look a little nicer, but these reflectors look ugly. They stand straight and tall for a day. Then the wind blows, vehicles hit them, and dogs brush by them, leaving them in disarray. The Florida sun makes the plastic brittle, crack, and fall apart, leaving pieces all over the road. Thanks for adding more debris to the already cluttered road.

Posted in Life, neighbor, neighborhood

Driving through the ditch

Posted on by William Douthwaite

It was still dark as the Great Dane and I made our usual dawn circuit of the neighborhood. But it was that time of day when cars were starting up as people left for work.

Two sedans, one SUV, and a pickup truck filled one driveway. Brake lights came on as someone started up one of the cars parked in by the other three. We wondered, “What’s he going to do?” I figured another driver would soon come out to either leave first or maneuver a car so the other car could get out.

But no one came out. I watched as the driver kept moving up and back until he could sneak the nose of the car onto his front lawn. This time I wondered out loud, “Where’s he going to go?”

Somehow he snuck the car in between a large tree and the front sidewalk, driving into the front yard. I cringed. It’s been raining a lot, drainage swales are full, and the ground is soft. “There’s no way…”

There was a way. The driver swung around the tree and headed right towards what looked like a fairly deep ditch. I chuckled, “He’s going to get stuck.”

He didn’t. The nose of the car dipped into the stagnant water and up the other side, followed by the rear wheels. I’ll admit, I would have laughed out loud if he ended up straddling the swale. But he didn’t. Somehow he got up and out and zoomed down the road.

“It’s got to be a rental,” I said. I can’t imagine a homeowner driving across their own front lawn. Although, I’ve seen it before on my own street as impatient drivers spun deep tracks across the yard.

Posted in neighbor, neighborhood

Crazy lights in the driveway

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I think I’ve written about this guy before. He’s been systematically ripping up his sod and putting it out for trash collection.

However, on this most recent walk, we noticed the lights in the driveway. If you look closely, you’ll notice that he drilled holes in the driveway for his solar lights. That’s right, he can’t pull his car out unless he lifts them out of the holes in the concrete.

I know. both my wife and I scratched our heads. What’s going on here? He’s got thirty-two solar lights in his yard and driveway. Not along a walkway. Not along the driveway. Through the middle of the yard.

Dementia? Perhaps. A bigger project in the works? Maybe, but I doubt it. This guy is off the wall.

Posted in Life, neighborhood

The misbehaving sprinkler

Posted on by William Douthwaite

The big dog and I know the sounds of the dawn. Birds begin to sing when the sky turns from black to blue. In the distance, garbage trucks are emptying the trash cans in the neighborhood. A rooster crows from behind a home at the halfway point of our walk. Japanese-made motorcycles whine in the distance as they speed down traffic-free roads. Dogs bark from inside homes as we walk by.

We didn’t recognize this sound. A bit like static on the radio, water in the sink, someone crumpling paper, and washing the car.

We rounded a slow curve and saw it. A broken sprinkler was shooting a stream of water right at the driver’s door of a black pickup truck. I’m used to seeing maladjusted sprinklers aiming water at the street, driveways, straight up the heavens, and into recycling bins. I’ve never seen a spray target the side of a truck.

Is this a bad thing? I don’t know. Heavy rains pummel my vehicles during torrential thunderstorms and hurricanes. I let car washes powerfully spray my vehicle with soap, rinses, and hot dryers.

Would water from this spray get inside the truck? Would it wear off the finish? I have no idea. It just didn’t seem like the ideal situation.

It was early. 6:30 am-ish. No one was up to see where the water was squirting. Oh well. I wouldn’t worry about a hurricane if I were you.