What’s behind my across-the-street-and-down-one neighbor’s landscaping? The shrubberies that were planted by the original owners have been permitted – nay, encouraged – during the last 20 years to grow unfettered to the second story of the house. It has to be completely impossible to use their front door now. They come and go via the garage. Which is not all that easy, since the aforementioned shrubberies also spill over and block half of the two-car-wide driveway. In addition, they have planted a row of pine trees realclosetogether around the border of the front lawn. So all you can see of the house from the road is half the garage, the roof and a bit of the second story. What could they possibly be hiding?
They’re not all that sociable, but in that regard are no different from most of the other folks in the neighborhood. They are friendly and you’ll get a wave or greeting in return if you offer one. Years ago they had a nephew who spent summers with them, and he and my kids used to play together.
It’s not just laziness, not wanting to trim the hedges, either. Between the trees and the hedges, you can see that the lawn stays neatly mowed, and there is a row of flowers planted. They have always seemed to be respectable people, going to work in the morning, coming home at night, etc.
They were one of the first black couples in the neighborhood, but they were not the only ones even then, and certainly not now. AFAIK no one has been the slightest bit hostile or unkind to them.
There’s a dairy farm about a half mile down the road from my house. There is an occasional cow escapee which is not too strange. The strange thing to me is, on three separate occasions, a cow escapee has wandered up the road to my front yard, stopping for a little grass snack. Now, there are a dozen other yards the cow passes before mine. Each time though, it’s mine she’s chosen. I’ve decided I must have some superior grass.
There’s a block of one-story rental townhouses across the street from me, kind of dumpy. One night the local police and SWAT team had a four-hour standoff with an unoccupied unit (seriously) that culminated in SWAT throwing multiple tear gas canisters through the windows and breaking down the front door to storm in. They repeated this behavior about two weeks later, though no repairs had been done in the meantime. The place looks trashed and has sat that way for months now. There’s no police tape or anything indicating a crime scene. The unit is just sitting open to the elements; you can see someone’s stuff inside.
The mystery: Why no repairs? Surely even a slumlord would want to get the unit operational and making money again. Are the cops preventing the owner from fixing it? For what reason? And what does the occupant whose unit was busted open do? (If he’s guilty, I guess the answer is “run away”). And what if his stuff gets stolen after the police leave? Does he have a case against them?
I would like to know exactly what was going through the heads of the three landowners on Eaton Avenue in Toronto who not only paved their front yards with brick, but then varnished the brick. WTF? There are low walls or steps around the yards, so there’s not even the bad excuse of parking on it!
Speaking of fences, the neighbors across the road and down two houses just installed a 6’ privacy fence, the kind you buy in pre-made sections at Home Depot, around their yard.
Half their yard, that is. It starts about halfway down each side of the house and circles a portion (only a portion) of their back yard.
But it’s not stuck into the ground the way you would expect. Oh, no, they put it up creatively: They tacked onto the inside of their 4’ chain link fence that encircles their entire property.
And its base is a foot above the ground. (The chain link fence goes all the way to the ground.) So you have a foot of chain link, topped with six feet of wood, stopping abruptly in the middle of each side of their house.
There is nothing but a small, barely-traveled street on one side of their back yard, and an open yard on the other side going all the way across to the next street.
So to sum up, they built a privacy fence that does not block the view to their yard except from a barely-traveled street or an empty lot. If you look from the front of the house you can see all the way through to the back of their back yard. And it is, to be honest, butt-ugly tacked partway up the chain link fence like that.
Why? It’s not like they had an attractive property to begin with; but who puts up a fence like that? Why?
But there’s nothing there – an empty street on one side, an empty lot on the other! It’s quite perplexing. And that’s ignoring all questions of taste; it’s as if they’re trying to turn their place into the neighborhood eyesore. And it’s not like they don’t have some stiff competition, but they just upped their level of contention seriously by the addition of this fence.
I’m one of those people (but at least I’m in the far right lane!) - my eyes take a long time to adjust to dark, and the occasional headlights coming up on a seldom-used road blind me for a second or two. Better to go slow to have time to react.
This is just a stab in the dark, but I assume it’s the extreme equivalent of having a camera fitted at your doorway. Except this guy figures there’s likely to be people sneaking around his yard and wants a heads-up on who they are and what they’re doing.
This suggests to me that he’s involved in some kind of illegal activity and expects a visit from specialist police forces.
Or possibly he’s a really nervous type and gets scared by noises outside that he can’t identify.
Merle Norman! A high class cosmetics store which used to be in all major malls. Large, well lighted stores, but I never saw anyone but a sales clerk in them.
Are they still around and if so, do they actually ever sell anything?
