Saturday Night Special

I am posting at night... on purpose.

Because honestly, I didn't know how my day was going to go, or what I was going to do. It was going to very much be a "Freestyle Saturday".

But I woke up to craziness. and commotion.. sounded like a plane was about to land on my house.

I looked at the clock. It was 8:00. 8:05 to be exact.

"What the world?" I said, as I tried to get my barrings.

Someone was next door cutting the 8 foot tall grass.

It was tall because my neighbors walked off from the house last June.





It is a beautiful house. Simply gorgeous. And they'd tricked it out inside. Dark cherry hardwood floors, crown molding, hot tub out back. They even installed a new bathroom.

And the balcony upstairs off the master bedroom with the french doors? It was to die for.

Just nice.

I'd been over several times, over the past 5 years. I have to admit that I wished in my heart that I could afford it. I'd wished that I wasn't alone, living on one salary. I love my house, and it in itself is too big for me (I am learning just now after 6 years here to live upstairs and downstairs. Didn't realize my house was THAT roomy).

But my neighbor lost his job. His partner was in school. And well... they were casualties of this economy.

It could happen to any of us. I would love to have a couple of years of savings stockpiled, but that's not the case. Things can change.

We can just hope they change for the best... and in the direction of increase.

I lay in bed this morning listening to all the ruckus... the attempts to tame a wild yard that had been so immaculate in the past.

There had been early morning ruckus earlier in the week. There was some work going on inside the house. I myself had to get out there earlier in the week and work on a piece of ivy vine on the fence that runs along the property line of our yards that had gotten out of control. One of the boards had come loose too.

Looks scary, especially at night... I underestimated the creepiness factor.

But I spent 10 minutes with my hedge clippers yanking and chopping away at it. I nailed the board back up.

I got it down to something reasonable.



... And headed on in the house.

But I lay there thinking about it this morning.

It is eerily similar to what my character Chandra in my story Watch was experiencing: excruciating noise, as seen in this excerpt.

Saws buzzing.
Trees Falling.
Rocks Cracking?

For an entire week, Chandra heard sounds she'd never heard before. The most unusual debilitating sounds permeated what were once quiet evenings. At one time, she heard the sound of what has to be a mighty giant grinding his teeth in the middle of a very bad dream.

Yes. I've written out the exact scenario... a couple of years ago.

Interesting.

I thought about all of this as I lay in bed this morning.

It was all over in an hour. The people had packed up their lawn equipment and were gone. Just that quick.

My master bedroom is downstairs, closest to the house. I stood on the bed and peaked out one of my long transom windows. The backyard was free of brush and debris. The big tree that had fallen back there was gone.

I'm not sure if anyone is moving in or not. I think it's the property management that the state requires from the banks on foreclosed houses. Whoever gets that house, gets a great house.

But that's how my day started. I got up, did a little reading and did 3 loads of laundry. I did a thorough cleaning of the laundry room, including scrubbing out the laundry sink and scrubbing the floors. (My goodness, I felt like my name was Celie). I did more reading, and went outside and cut the hedges of the bushes in front of my front porch.

And that's about it. I didn't even leave. I ran most errands during the week after work so I could have more time at home this weekend. So I was happy for that.

I had a big bowl of purple cabbage for breakfast. Spaghetti for dinner. YUM!

Saturday started off noisy, but it is ending peacefully.

And I am glad of that.