Our elderly neighbor

Our street is currently under construction.  It's a good thing because it will be really nice to have new streets and sidewalks.  But right now it's a total mess.  Here's a picture taken from the street in front of our house.  This was after we got back from evacuating from Ike.  You can see the tree down in the last house on the right. The people on the torn up side park in the front yards of the non-torn up side. When they start on our side, we'll park in their front yard.



Anyway, just in the last week our old man neighbor across the street has apparently gotten a "bee in his bonnet." Maybe he's just ticked off that he still doesn't power. The other day he chewed our friend Andrea for speeding down the street and driving the wrong direction. The speed limit is 20 and that's about as fast as you can possibly go without bottoming out in the many pot holes all over the place. Andrea was probably doing about 15 mph when he came out and started yelling at her. He has yelled to me and Phillip that he's written down our license plate numbers and is calling City Hall about us. Uh, City Hall? In my opinion he's just making a fool of himself standing out there in the yard watching people "break the law" all day. Seriously, get another hobby.

And lots of people go the wrong direction down the street. If you drive around Redwood, Ash, Hawthorn, Gardenia it's hard to know which way to go. The streets are torn up all over the place and there are crews working here and there too. In order to go the "right" direction we would have to make a ridiculous detour that would take us several minutes out of our way. Our house is about 8 houses in on the right. So when we need to head out toward Plantation Dr. we almost always go the wrong way down the street. Is it legal? Probably not. Is it bothering anybody? Nobody except our old man across the street. When they first started tearing up our street I tried to go the "right" way several times and got down to the end and had to turn around anyway. So I finally just gave up and I go the "wrong" way. There have been a couple of times that another vehicle has been coming down our street the right way while I've been going the wrong way. So, I just pull over into someone's yard until they pass. We both give each other the knowing wave that says, "Yeah, this sucks but you gotta deal with it."

I'm not a total rule follower by nature, especially if the rules seem to serve no purpose. Is driving against traffic on a one lane street dangerous? Possibly under certain circumstances. Is is dangerous going 10 mph for a couple hundred yards? I really don't think so. Is it illegal? Yes. Is driving 55 mph in a 50 mph zone illegal? Yes. Do we all do it? Most likely.

I'm thinking about making a sign to stick in my front yard that says "Just ignore our old, crazy neighbor!"

I like sweet, cute, happy old people. I don't like the snappy, crotchety, crazy ones. Something tells me I might not turn into a sweet, cute, happy old lady. I guess if I'm snappy and mean I'll probably be too crazy to know.