Looking for some good in my fellow man (or woman)

I’m wary of becoming the neighborhood crank.

There’s the ongoing laser beam glare of disgust that I shoot across the street at the woman who allows her cat to roam the neighborhood. It stalks the fun wildlife at our birdfeeder, which is annoying enough. Luckily I finally figured out that sprinkling hot pepper flakes all over my garden keeps the poo-ing cat out, so my laser beam has been turned down just a notch. But still.

Then there are the really quite irresponsible next door neighbors. They once had a TINY kitten they allowed to roam the neighborhood. It turned into a psycho cat that would pretend to like you and then start scratching and biting. Oh, and it liked to jump up onto our screen door and hang. They also have a dog that they sometimes leave alone overnight, at which times it literally barks All. Night. Long. And on lovely evenings like we had last night, when you’d have to be nuts not to leave your windows open for the cool breeze, they have LOUD parties on their deck until the wee, small hours. Last night’s party included children tearing around their yard and literally screaming until about midnight. So yeah, there’s a double irresponsibility – small children do NOT need to be outside until midnight, and no one should be making that much noise that late.

And neighborhood crank symptom #3: Middle Sister and I went to music in the park again last night. It should have been perfect, with cool weather, crocheting taken along, and lots adorable children to watch as they played and marched around to the music. Instead all I could pay attention to was the row of four adults – grandparent-aged, no less – just behind us who TALKED AT FULL VOLUME throughout the entire concert. All four of them. My laser beam glare, turned on repeatedly, had absolutely no effect. And Middle Sister begged me not to say anything. She’s been embarrassed by my “former teacher who can’t ignore misbehavior” lectures to strangers too many times before.

So…my goal for today is to find adults behaving responsibly and in a socially acceptable manner. It might be a little tricky, as I’ll spend much of the day glued to my computer and my office, getting last minute details in line for a huge project at work.

But I will try. Wish me luck.

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