The Neighbourhood Old-Timers, Part 1 - Background

I put out the the trash late last night. I noticed
that nobody else had their trash out. I thought
for a minute . . . had there been a holiday
earlier this week? Is the trash pickup
delayed one day?

Then it hit me: no one else had put their
trash out because I hadn't put MY trash out.
I've become the "elder statesman" of my little
street in only three and a half years. They look
to ME for guidance (FOOLS !!!).

It wasn't always this way.

We moved into our house in June 2001.
At the time, the place was a real eyesore :
it hadn't been painted in at least 15 years,
the siding was falling apart, the grass was
uncut and the bushes were seriously overgrown
- like, over the windows.

The "across-the-street" neighbours were :
-- a retired couple
-- another retired couple
-- a couple from Trinidad with a young child

Woo hoo! A quiet neighbourhood!

The house had been vacant for almost a year. It had plenty
of problems, as you can imagine.

Still, after years of renting, it was great to finally own our own
place.

Any problems would pale in comparison to the crap we had
to deal with from the last two landlords we'd had (both
LAWYERS, if that tells you anything). At least we knew
this place was REALLY lead-free, since WE had it inspected
and WE didn't feel the need to lie to ourselves before we
moved in, thereby threatening the health of our child.
But, I digress . . .

Only small problems now . . .