Litter Sucks!

Carl and I live in this not-so-nice-not-as-trashy-as-they-come neighborhood. Our house is one of the cutest on the block. It is small, but we love it. We've been homeowners for a little over four years. During those four years, the only neighbors we really got to know were the ones of both sides of our house. The house across the street, a cute little blue number, is a rent house. The people that live there currently have only been there for about a year. Before that, I think some college kids rented it. Most of the homes on that side of the street are rent houses that run between $600 and $700 per month. All of the houses on our block, including ours, are small, two to three bedroom, suitable for college kids or small families just starting out. Our neighbors to the left are older than my parents.

My complaint is that the neighbors to our right and the neighbors that rent the house across the street keep trashing our block. First off, the neighbors to the right are decent people with no class whatsoever. We know them by name but choose not to associate with them very often. Their children are 4 and 2, and they practically live outside. Their parents are smoking and beer-drinking folk nearly every time we see them. They continuously have people over for parties, and they do not pick up their trash. As a matter of fact, half of the time we find their trash in our yard. Sometimes, it is even in our back yard. Their curb is currently littered with an empty 12-pack box of Miller, napkins, and plastic cups, amongst a few other bits of trash. The neighbors across the street are African-American and have about 5 kids of various ages at their house all the time. I actually do not know how many children belong to them. I've seen up to ten kids in their yard shooting hoops at one point. Their children are always outside, riding bikes or playing basketball, typically unsupervised. One day, I was driving home after a big rain and witnessed a 12 or so year old playing in the muddy water along the curb. I was horrified but dismissed it quickly as simple child's play. Once again, no parents were in sight. Their curb is completely littered with trash, too.

When I got home, I noticed that there was a lot of trash in my front yard and along my curb. I do not litter, so I knew I did not put it there. I looked around the neighborhood and realized that not only was my yard trashed but the whole block looked trashy. Now, I am not too much of an environmentalist. I do care about the environment, but my concerns are limited to picking up trash and planting trees and that sort of thing. I grabbed a trash bag and started picking up the trash, so I could water my poor, brown lawn. I was so annoyed that my yard was full of litter that I did not put there! If our neighbors do not care about the appearance of their house, fine. I cannot make them and would not try to convince them to attempt to look like decent folk. However, I do care about the appearance of my house. I certainly do not appreciate non-sensical, thoughtless idiots making it look like I can't take care of my property. It angers me! So, Carl called his ex-lawyer dad to see if there was anything we could do about this problem. Joe recommended talking to the people first and asking them to please make sure their trash does not wind up in our yard. If it happens again, then we should file a report with the city to make them aware of the situation. We skipped step one. It would be different if this was a once-in-a-while thing. But, we have this happen on a near-daily basis. We'll see what happens. I seriously doubt the city will take the time to investigate one couple's complaint, but maybe, just maybe they will.

August 2, 2008

So, I really don't know why I decided to get my own blogspot. I guess I noticed that everyone has one, so I needed one, too. I'm so easily influenced! Anyway, I used to blog a lot on MySpace, but I sort of stopped. I get so busy living my life, that I forget to do things like blog. Those of you that read this will probably notice I'll go long periods of time without exercising my right to blog. Today, however, I felt like I needed a blogspot. And, I don't want my page to be blank and without blogs. That would defeat the purpose, right?

So, what's on my mind? I am being quite the computer nerd today. I've almost literally been at my computer all day. I blame my husband. Anyone who knows Carl would know that he is an extreme computer nerd. He even plays World of Warcraft! How nerdy is that?! I love my computer, but I did not love it this much until after Carl was on it constantly. I guess that proves that you tend to want things you cannot have. Carl's at work right now, so I am going to make the most of the time I have to spend being lazy and typing away on my computer.

I don't know where to begin. School is starting soon, and I am not really ready. I've been spending nearly everyday with my nieces and nephews. During the school year, I don't get to see them all the time. I sometimes go 2 weeks without seeing those sweet kids. Since it's summer and I did not teach summer school, I've been helping my mom and Carrie (my sister) out with my other sister's (Amy) three kids. Carrie adds another 3 to that picture, so I've basically been spending the summer with 6 kids. It really has been fun. I love getting to see those kids daily. When school starts, it will be hard to go back to seeing them every couple of weeks. My nieces and nephews are the cutest kids I've ever seen in my life. They have this great zest for life. It reminds me of what it was like to be a child and things were so much simpler. I cannot wait to have kids of my own. I can only imagine how great it would be to hear someone say, "Your daughter looks just like you!" or "You're son is the most intelligent kid!" or even "Wow, your kids must take after you because he/she is so bright!" Yes, kids are great.

I used to think I wanted to be a writer of Broadway plays. I even wrote my own one-act in college. It was silly and dumb, but I was proud of it. I couldn't live in New York, though. I would miss my family (especially my mom) way too much. I've actually never even been to NY. I almost got to go once. Carl's old band, 80's Combat, was touring, and I flew down to meet them in New Jersey. Speaking of, that is one state I do not recommend visiting. Our experience there, however short-lived it was, was clouded by a young guy throwing the F word into every sentence as much as possible and this stench that beat the pants off of the cow smell we get in TX. Anyway, when I planned to meet the band in NJ, I had the understanding that we would be going to NY the next day. As it turns out, the band decided to go to NY the previous day, therefore resulting in my missing a trip to NY. Boys suck. I did get to go through several East Coast states, though, and it was a good experience overall. I still wanted to go to NY, though. I'll get there, eventually.

My one claim to fame is that a small, homey restaurant posted a saying that I had come up with on their marquis. Glazed Honey Ham has these comment cards, typical of most restaurants, and I decided to fill one out sometime last year. The last question on the comment card was reserved for Additional Comments, and I penciled in that I thought "I think, therefore I ham." was a superb slogan for the restaurant. This probably sounds strange considering I haven't given you the back story yet. It all started several years ago when I was taking Carl to one of his band member's houses so they could embark on yet another multi-state tour. (This was one I was not going on.) It was something like 6:30 in the AM, and I passed by Glazed Honey Ham. I'd never eaten there before, but I have a habit of reading every marquis and billboard I encounter. Theirs said, "Will trade ham sandwich for clever saying." I went home and unable to drift back into peaceful slumber due to my sadness over Carl's departure, I started writing down as many clever sayings as I could possibly come up with. I carried this paper in my purse for months, never stopping at Glazed Honey Ham to turn it in and retrieve my ham sandwich. I forgot about it until my man and I decided to try Glazed Honey Ham on one of our Friday night date nights. In exchange for my "clever saying," I received not a ham sandwich, but a gift card for two meals and two desserts. They also displayed my "clever saying" on their marquis for about a week. I have a picture of it somewhere.