Category: Around the neighborhood

Posted on

Gentle Rain…

Last night soft rain began falling just as I was heading to bed. I love the sound of gentle rainfall and often use the sound of rain on the HomePods in the bedroom to fall asleep.

Last night the fake track wasn’t necessary, Mother Nature provided a natural soundtrack all night long.

Although about 1 or 2 am, the natural soundtrack was interrupted by a bunch of noise from jackass central where Crazy Pants and the other transient trash live.

I suppose that as much of a pain in the ass as it is. I’m going to have to start making noise complaints.

My hesitation about that is if I’m not going to be living here for much longer do I really care? Another consideration is if I start a “war” with those idiots, it could impact my ability to sell my house because if their behavior gets worse, it could scare off potential buyers. Fortunately the eye sore that it their property is mostly concealed by trees and other structures that don’t look like cover photos for “Homeless Beautiful, Your definitive guide to shitty living”

I love that the police are always so concerned about Crazy Pant’s rights, but when asked what about the other neighbors rights they shake their heads. Technically it’s not fair to place the police in that metaphorical vise. It’s not their job to decide. Since Crazy Pants and everyone else in the neighborhood have equal rights, it’s for a judge to determine where the line is.

Eventually the noise died down at Crazy Pants place. I can only hope that they drugged themselves into a stupor or death. I know there’s no such luck on the latter so I’ll take comfort in the former. Once their annoyance quieted, the rain was back. The sound seemed a little louder, as if the intensity of the storm increased.

Perhaps Nature was just trying to drown out the shenanigans so the neighborhood could sleep soundly.

On thing of note about the noise was that the dog didn’t budge from his spot on the bed. When the noise started, he looked up, groaned, and went back to sleep. That’s a comment on the frequency of the disruptions coming from Crazy Pants place. Even the dog is disinterested. He’s a classy dog & they’re trashy primates.

It’s cool and overcast this morning. There’s a slight chance of more rain but I doubt it will happen. I’m thankful for the break in temperature and the quiet of the morning.

I won’t have to water the trees and there may have been enough rain to rinse the dust off the solar panels. That’s one of the things the brochures don’t tell you. Those panels on the roof have to be rinsed from time to time, dust and pollen have a measurable effect on the panel efficiency.

I’m sure there are additional chores that I need to do around here. With watering and rinsing off the list, I think I’ll have another cup of coffee and enjoy the morning a while longer.

Besides, the weather station here in the living room says we could have some thunderstorms. I’d like that, but I’d also be content with more gentle rain.

Posted on

Does this make me a bad person?

I honestly don’t know what the hell is going on at Crazy Pants’ house these days.

Yesterday some dude I’ve seen around was stomping down the street calling the boyfriend of Crazy Pants all kinds of names and then walking back up to better hear the boyfriends response.

Then he’s acting like he wants to fight right there on the street calling the boyfriend less than a man.

If I’d not had the windows open I’ve have ignored the whole mess but since I could hear everything I decided to watch as well. I thought about making popcorn and cracking open a beer even though it was only 9am!

Hey, if they’re going to put on a live show, why the hell shouldn’t I watch?

After another few minutes of grumbling at each other the stranger, who I think of as “Whitey” because of his long white hair, goes back up to Crazy Pant’s property. Where the two males, continue to bitch at each other.

I was thinking, “Come on guys, just fuck already! You’re fighting like you’re married!”

After another hour or so, things quiet down.

Around 9pm there’s more yelling then there’s a male voice I’m assuming “Whitey” moaning and saying I’m hurt bad, then he’s almost begging Crazy Pants boyfriend, “Please don’t hurt me more”.

I’m thinking one of two things, 1) They finally decided to punch it out, or 2) They decided to fuck and are into some rough stuff.

I don’t think Crazy Pants boyfriend is particularly hung so it’s not like Whitey was moaning over, or complaining about taking it.

At one point last night someone called for help but not one of the neighbors, myself included, went to look, opened our front doors, or called the cops.

This morning all is quiet, even the fucking 5 Chihuahuas that are yapping all the damn time. I thought I heard Crazy Pants muttering and mumbling earlier, but now she’s quiet.

I found myself thinking, “I hope they fucking kill each other.” Then it occurred to me that there will be one survivor, there is always one survivor. There’s always one roach, or one rat, but one always survives.

Then I thought, “In older times, the neighbors would be within their rights to deal with the survivor too.” In less fire prone areas, the neighbors would burn the house to the ground. That way they’d avoid having to bury the bodies, just stack ‘em in the house and “Woosh”.

Fire purifies everything. It would even burn their names from the neighborhood’s memory.

The only epitaph would be, “They were bad people.”

When stuff like this goes through my mind I realize it’s just me being super tired of the constant drama. But I wonder about myself as a person. Does this make me a bad guy too? Does my growing hatred for those people present a danger, and are they dragging me down to their level? Who am I to sit in judgment?

I’ve contented myself, thinking as long as I’m asking these questions I’m probably okay. There is some shred of morality left in me regarding these people.

I found it jarring yesterday because I was hoping the two guys would beat each other to death and I was hoping that Crazy Pants would be hurt badly when she got in the cross fire. What shocked me was that I was perfectly content to watch it, beer in hand and baseball bat within easy reach.

Yeah, I tend to not spend much time in the front yard unless I’ve got something to defend myself with these days. Crazy Pants has been known to wander the neighborhood with large butcher knives, pick up rocks, and as in my case simply punch people without provocation.

Whitey just walked down the street. He’s wearing a backpack, carrying a bottle of water and looked like he was a man on a mission. I didn’t see any visible injuries. I wonder if he had enough and is gone for good? I’ve heard the boyfriend yelling at one or two of the dogs. So there are multiple survivors.

Dang!

Oh well, maybe this weekend they’ll do each other in. I’ve got plenty of popcorn and beer!

Posted on

Something I never thought I’d say…

I suppose there are a lot of those things.

In this particular case, it’s I’m happy with how long my computer battery lasts. I’m also somewhat impressed with the iPad battery too.

The computer is insane. I’ll use the thing for days. I’ll be surprised when I get a low battery warning and then think, “Oh Yeah, it’s been a while!” This is very different from the older machines I’ve had. I lived by their power monitors and always carried spare batteries or adapters.

I’m still working on settings on the iPad to minimize its power consumption. My Computer and iPad both use the M2 chip but the iPad is more in line with a day or day and a half of use. I think that’s because there are background applications that wake up or are running on the iPad that aren’t as “busy” on the computer.

I believe I can probably trim more of the iPad background applications out of the background and realize more power savings.

The point is, when I started using laptop computers years ago, a 2 hour battery life was considered good. Now I’m talking about 2 day battery life between charges. I’m using the machine as I normally would, I’m typing blogs, surfing the net, working on stories, (although not fast enough there,) attending video conferences or watching lectures. Through it all, the computer doesn’t seem to care or get winded. I don’t think I’ve heard the fans come on, ever.

For the first time I’ll leave the house with my machines in my brief case and leave the chargers behind.

I suppose this is on my mind because today the computer asked for a bit of power. I plugged it in, and it said okay I’m charging to 80% quickly. (That would have actually gotten me through my typical day with ease.) The computer then switched over to a holding pattern at 80% and will finish charging by about 1:30PM.

This means that the machine has figured out my general habits and is using the charging feature Apple designed to extend battery life. It’s cool. I can override it if I want, or need to, but why? I’d rather have a battery that’s healthy in two or three years (like my iPhone 12 Pro) than force the issue. Besides, I’m using the big monitor in the office. I like this monitor a lot but I like working with the computer on the back deck more.

For the past 24 hours the wind has been kicking up to crazy gusty levels. I don’t feel like sitting out on the deck in all the blowing dust and pollen. Even though the sun is shining and the temps are nice.

It’s been all I could do to keep my sinuses open and the poor dog literally snorted a patch of pollen he thought was a food wrapper (I think). He’s been sneezing 5 or 6 times at a go for the past two days. I laugh at him… Then he saunters down the hall trying to look dignified, until another sneezing fit hits and he sneezes himself into a wall or something. My continuing to laugh gets me a dirty look and he retires to his “Room” where he can be alerted about food but doesn’t have to look at me.

All of which is to say that the amount of pollen in the air is so high that getting it into a keyboard would not be such a good thing. So I don’t need to be sitting outside for my sake, the keyboard’s sake, or the dog’s sake. All of us are quite comfortable inside.

I’ve got the leeward side of the house open for the fresh air but every once in a while the wind will shift just for a minute or two and blow a new batch of yellow joy into the house.

I was originally going to use a photo of my hand but when I looked at the photo I realized that you could easily see all of my fingerprints. Probably not a great idea to broadcast that kind of biometric information across the internet! With a little work I could convert the image into usable prints, so you get the swiffer. If the FBI ever needed non carbon fingerprint dust, I can recommend pine pollen.

I hope you all have a nice Monday. I’m hitting the sinus spray again!