Life in the 'hood

I've made mention about the neighborhood I live in, and this week has brought it all home again.

Yesterday I was on my way home from the gym and the state store (doesn't everyone stop for liquor after a workout?), and I wondered what the hell was going on now, because the road that goes past our apartment was totally backed up.

Customers at the hole in the wall bar (that dares to call itself a pub) up the street from us, had spilled out on the sidewalk and were all staring up the street. Porches that are normally empty all year long, were full of their house's inhabitants.

"Great! A wreck, just what I need (I'm now a hard hearted Big City dweller)!"

And then I saw a police car pulled up on the sidewalk.

Then another police car.

Holy shit! There were police cars all over the place (I counted eight) and they were parked across every driveway entrance including ours and what the hell had Hans done now?

I slowed to a stop and not one person behind me honked their horn.

Everyone was that mesmerized.

I finally pulled over and parallel parked across the street. My heart slowed down a bit when I realized that our apartment (and Vet Tech Girl's apartment, below) didn't appear to be the center of activity. I saw policemen with guns drawn, walking around a junky apartment house just up from us. From the looks of things I'd say they were searching for someone and all I could think was; if that certain someone had broken into Vet Tech Girl's apartment, he was probably sitting on the couch and sharing bon-bons with my grand-dog Duncan the Pit Bull.

I managed to lug my sweaty body, and my many bottles of liquor across the street without getting caught in any crossfire, and burst into our apartment breathless with excitement.

I made Hans, who had been slaving away at the computer (Internet poker) and hadn't heard a thing, look out the window but by then most of the police cars were gone.

Then tonight we walked out of the apartment and there sat three police cars, and once again the police were circling the building up the street, only now they had a police dog with them. But shortly thereafter they left.

I very excitedly filled Vet Tech Girl in on the situation and she (like Hans) had no idea this was going on around us. I was telling her to please be careful and keep an eye out because I don't think the culprit has been caught. We then veered off that subject and onto her car (now fixed thank God), her need for a couch (I have one at my house that she can have), and then she said, "My friends love my purse! I even had a man say, 'I love your bag!' and another one of my co-workers loves it but she wants one that she can wear across her chest."

To be honest folks, I thought she'd either thrown it out or given it away. And it just made my day to see her hold it up and tell me how, because of its color, it's a great fall purse and she's loving it.

I think you have to be a parent to understand that your kid's approval sometimes takes precedence over prowling criminals and gun toting policemen!