The People In My Neighborhood

For about the past four years I have been walking two miles every day to get a little exercise and fresh air. I literally leave my house, walk a mile through my neighborhood, turn around and walk back home. After approximately 3,000 trips up and down the sidewalk the walk has become a bit on the mundane side.

To lighten up the monotony some I began counting cars a couple years back. I just keep a running count of how many cars pass me on my trip. It varies depending on what time of day I go. If I go around dinner time I will see a ton of cars, 97 is the all time high. That's about 3 cars a minute driving through my little slice of suburbia. The low is a mere 8 cars when I went about midnight one night.

I also count other things from time to time, squirrels in the fall, robins in the spring for instance. After four years of scoping out my neighborhood I have a pretty good handle on things. I recognize when a car has been parked in the same spot for three weeks, new street signs and other random things. Here are some of the highlights of my walk through zip code 20121.

Yellow Shirt Guy:

If I leave my house at about 1:55pm, my standard departure time, I usually see a guy in a little green Honda wearing a bright yellow shirt driving towards me as I walk. I figure he is on his lunch break and heading back to work as he is always heading in the same direction at about the same time of day.

Darky The Squirrel:

There is a black squirrel in my neighborhood. I see him all the time, not just on my walk. Black squirrels are a genetic mutation and not all that uncommon but just seeing him is a bit of a treat. I always yell out "Hi Darky" whenever I see him. He has never said anything back though.

The Pedophile:

I also see this old man at the park pretty regularly on the swings. I call him the pedophile but maybe he is just a retired pilot who missed the friendly skies. He is on the swings a couple days a week and always looks like he is having a blast swinging away.

The Dog Lady:

I also see a retired woman walking her dog on a pretty regular basis. We have brief conversations about the weather but I don't even know her name after probably two years of seeing her. I do know her dog was a rescue from Hurricane Katrina but that's about it.

The Bleeding Tree:

Last year the power company cut down a bunch of trees around their power lines. Ever since, one of the leftover stumps has been "bleeding". Really, it just means the roots of the tree are still alive and capturing water and nutrients and sending them upwards to the tree that is no longer there. Still, it's wicked creepy and the kind of thing that Stephen King would love to use in one of his novels.

Homeless Guy:

Every now and then I see a guy sleeping in his car at night. He isn't there every night but every so often he will be in it with his pillow and blankets for a few nights in a row. The car is always there but he is not always in it. Maybe it's just when his mother-in-law comes to visit.

Mood: Content

Song Of The Day:

"Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood,
In your neighborhood, in your neighborhood."

-In Your Neighborhood

The Muppets