This Week in the Neighborhood
Oh my goodness. It’s September and that means the stores and the advertisers have begun Halloween sales and promotions! It’s crazy how early we can be ‘tricked’ into purchasing ‘treats’ for holidays out on the horizon. As though if I bought a bag of candy now for the trick-or-treaters it would still be around in two months. It’s just rude and tempting the chocolate lover in me. It’s also this time of year, when the season officially changes, again. The wind picks up slightly, the leaves start to slowly change in appearance and some even start to descend from the trees. Everything does feel a little spooky with the sun setting earlier and earlier. It’s no big surprise that the neighbors are feeling a little more restless and paranoid than usual.
The neighborhood had been unusually quiet for the past three days, and I had high hopes that it was due to the long conversations I’d had with both the PTSD neighbor and the 87-year-old ex-gangster - in my attempts to smooth over wounded egos, and hyper-paranoia. Both conversations started with, “You can’t worry about what other people say or do, but focus on yourself and the positive influence you can make on the world. ‘Be the change you want to see…’” yeah…it was a lot of mumbo jumbo I had hoped would have an impact.
I stopped over to our neighbor’s house, the same ones that have been our friends from day one, for a quick visit. And of course, the calm was too good to be true. It turns out PTSD neighbor had been carrying on all morning, albeit more quietly than usual, about his patio table umbrella. It had fallen over. PTSD neighbor convinced himself that the 87-year-old
ex-gangster hired one of his goons to knock it down. Assuring anyone listening that this was not an act of God or nature (wind) but definitely an act of vandalism. Fortunately, my friendly neighbors have their own set of security cameras installed and they just so happen to have one facing in the direction of the now fallen umbrella. As we watched the video we realized we were dealing with something far more foreboding than hired goons. We were up against the powers of telekinesis… or, the wind. Here’s the video… you be the judge and jury...
