The original Park was a very private place. It was on a cul-de-sac, kind of tucked in a corner, and the front door was nearly invisible from the road unless you were in just the right spot. It was surrounded by frothy trees and bushes, and very few people ever approached it. The road that ran behind it was a main artery for our development, but across that road from us was an expanse of thick, undeveloped swamp. The whole place was overrun with mosquitoes and swamp rats, but it was thin on people. Maybe fifteen or twenty joggers and dog walkers a day would go down the sidewalk behind our fence, causing the dogs to bark like maniacs, but the road noise was generally controlled by the twelve foot tall, fifty foot long tea olive hedge, and the random collection of trees along the fence. Smith Park 2.0 is nothing like that. We are on a smaller, rectangular, level lot, with all of three trees of our very own (so far). The street outside is a very busy thoroughfare, with near constant foot and vehicle traffic. My big windows face this street, and I am discovering my rather casual habits for dress and lounging about are now on display to hundreds of people a day. I noticed this morning, as I looked across the street, that I could clearly see into someone else's house, as she got up in her living room and walked away. This naturally means that I can be seen equally as well. The old neighborhood was covenant controlled, and soliciting was forbidden in the entire development. (Not that it stopped the scam artists who really were trying to gain access to your bank account or scope your house to see whether they wanted to rob it. Those types came through once in a while.) Here, we are in an old part of town, and there are no HOAs to run interference for us. Sometimes the solicitation is welcome, such as a few days ago when the milkman from a local dairy (that's right, I said milkman) offered to add us on his route. So Thursday, right about the time I will run out of the life's blood known as half and half, he will be by with cream for our coffee and eggs for our breakfast. (I really have stepped back to 1959 by buying this house!) Other solicitations were less welcome. Mr S-P finally refueled the lawn mower and cut the grass out front this morning, and this afternoon we had our first lawn service pitch on the front porch. Really? With the fresh diagonal mower lines in the grass, you are coming up here to see whether I want to pay you to do it? Thanks, but no thanks. Besides, sooner than later, half that front lawn will be taken up by flowers and a new Colorado blue spruce tree. Not much mowing needed then. I wonder who next will just wander up on my porch and ring the bell. I don't like strangers coming up and peeping in the door. I may have to change my habits of leaving the front door and blinds open, and myself on display.
The Pride liberated themselves this evening. I was blissfully playing a computer game, after spending all day painting my bedroom a dark mushroom color. I was exhausted and ignoring all suspicious noises. So I was surprised to find an open screen door in the dining room and two little sets of eyes staring at me from two barely visible black faces, on the wrong side of the threshold. I had to catch Athena twice, because once all the black and white units were accounted for, she wouldn't let me come back into the house without one last challenge. As par for the course, Zoe was completely gone, not hiding in the back yard thinking she was sneaky like the other girls. Zoe waited outside, hidden, for another half an hour, until her daddy came home. Then she was willing to come out of hiding. One day, probably after the privacy fence is built, I will have to cave in to Zoe's demands and just install a cat flap. Until that day, I am going to try to keep the peace around here, and convince her she wants to hang out with me once in a while. I like challenges.
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