Thursday, June 22, 2017

Immersed in Suburbia (Part 2)

As I've written before, this is the quietest place I have ever known.

The kids have finished the school year. They still haven't learned the art of sleeping in. They're both up in the 6:00 hour. It makes for long days. There are screens in the house and they're content to stare into screens as long as you let them. We do morning bike rides in the neighborhood to get outside early in the day and to fight against screen time. It's for me as much as it is for them. I need to put down the damn phone and ease off my reading of 1,000 hot takes and opinions. There are some good opinions out there, though.

To bike around the neighborhood is to have the sidewalks to yourself. It's amazing. Yes, there is a dog walker here and a person getting into their car there, but for the most part there is no action. It's houses not people. We've lived here 5 years and I still can't believe the attention to detail when it comes to lawn care and other property maintenance.

Yesterday and today we did two loops around the neighborhood. Yesterday a woman sitting in her car (coming or going, I'm not sure) noticed us and said "Two times" to us in a tone of encouragement. It's nice to be recognized in a positive way. I'm remembering now there were two old timers shooting the breeze in a driveway and during the second loop I caught their eyes and said "Good morning, gentlemen." One thing I've found in life is that most men don't mind being called gentlemen.

Today I caught the eye of someone doing work on a house, but just as I went into a head nod he turned away.

And soon we were back home. The kids played catch in our front yard for about 5 minutes before getting into an argument. They file many grievances a day and I assume it's that way for a lot of children. "I don't want to hear any complaining" I said, or something like that, and sent them off to their rooms to cool down.

There are a lot of kids in the neighborhood. Friendly kids that play well with my kids. If memory serves, it takes a few weeks for all of us to get into our summer routines, and eventually all the kids start buzzing around, playing together, and the grownups socialize too. Lately, one of my neighbors and I have taken to talking about Wilco and he's kind enough to always offer me a beer. He thought I'd like Sky Blue Sky more than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot but I definitely prefer Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I'm glad to have a neighbor that shares a love of music and beer.

The end, for now.

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