Tag: yard

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 Life

Vivid backyard memories

Posted on by William Douthwaite
My childhood backyard from the bottom of the hill

The moment my daughter and her family moved into their new home, her boys were outside, running around and playing in the yard. They kicked soccer balls around with their cousins and threw balls for the dog to retrieve. The two previous houses they lived in had little yard to play in. This is so good for them!

What a blessing to have a yard to play in. The home I grew up in had the biggest fenced in backyard on the block. The yard included a big hill with flat areas at the top and bottom. We could roll down the hill pretty fast, crashing into the fence at the bottom. We had enough room to play baseball and football even though we had to climb over the fence to retrieve hits and kicks. In the fall, the maple trees left behind plenty of leaves for huge piles to jump in. In the winter, a little snow made our yard the best sledding hill around. By building a small ramp, we could get airtime with a saucer sled. We ate a lot of mulberries from the trees at the bottom of the hill. My friends and I build a great fort at the bottom with some wood my dad got from a salvage yard. The dogs we owned over the years loved to chase balls thrown from the top of the hill all the way down to the far corner until they were exhausted. We set up giant games of croquet that covered our half-acre.

As I write this, I am amazed at how vivid my backyard memories are from fifty-plus years ago!

Posted in neighbor, Rant

The red sofa

Posted on by William Douthwaite

IMG-7566OK, it’s really a love seat. But it is really red. And I see it every time I leave my house or come back home. Because it sits, faithfully, on my neighbor’s lawn.

If you ask me, it shouldn’t have a place in someone’s yard. It shouldn’t have a place in someone’s house, either. Three weeks ago my neighbor put it out on the curb, assuming that the garbage men would pick it up. Nope. They didn’t want it either. It has now been soaked by the rains, ignored on bulk pick up days, and endured the intense heat of the October Florida sun. Passing dogs have baptized it, bugs have taken up residence in it, and mold has begun to thrive in it.

It doesn’t seem to bother my neighbor at all. He cuts the lawn around it. He stacks weekly trash against it. It has joined his unsightly array of halloween, occult and just plain ugly lawn ornaments.

I suppose there are times in life when you need a red sofa. Like when you’re going to murder someone in your living room. Or you’re bleeding from some orifice. Maybe you’re addicted to ketchup. Think about it. Someone actually made this love seat. Someone actually bought it. And yes, now someone has set it out in the yard for all to enjoy.

Just wait — I’m going to come up with a story to go with it.