I thought of offering my services free to the neighbors. Then I thought better of it and didn’t. It’s always good to think before you act.

Here I am sitting in my chair, looking out the window. I can see the neighbors’ houses on both sides up and down the street.

There are workers next door, making the house liveable so the neighbors can move back in.

A truck drove up at 10:45 in the morning. Then another truck joined it. One parked in the driveway, one on the street.

A man got out and carried something into the house. Two men from the other truck got out and carried something else into the house.

A while later, a man came out carrying a trash bag which he put in the trash can. Another man came out with a trash bag and put it in the trash. They all got in their trucks and drove away at 12:15.

I thought they were going for lunch, but they never came back.

The next day a big car drove up. A man dressed like inspector got out with a clipboard and went inside. Five minutes later, he came out, got in his car and drove away.

The next day the workers were back. They stayed for three hours.

I looked across the street. The neighbor was at work, but the gardeners drove up. Two men. One got out a weed whacker. He pulled the cord. The noise woke the neighborhood, and he whacked a lone blade of grass standing up in the parkway.

He put the whacker back in the truck, and the other man got out the blower. Apparently he was the specialist and really loved his blower. Electric, battery operated, he blew it everywhere, the trees, the lawn, the sidewalk, the parkway, the gutter. He blew the accumulation down the street in front of the neighbor’s house. The neighbor hired his own gardener to blow it one more house down.

The gardeners were there twenty full minutes.

They contract monthly.

It’s not as bad as the government which takes our money to do a job but doesn’t do it, then closes down the Department but keeps the money. Then they pass laws putting no cap on profits, then issue proclamations saying they don’t have to obey the laws.

Don’t get me started on the government.

Anyway, I thought of offering my services free to the neighborhood.

I can’t do as much as I used to, but I can still be helpful.

I could sit in my window and write everything down. When workers arrive. How many. When they leave.

The neighbors could re-negotiate their contracts.

Just like we’re trying to do with the government. Don’t get me started on the government.

But then I thought, as I said I would, that the workers could find out who ratted them out. Me.

Then, when I was away, maybe out of town, trucks would innocently arrive, workers would come, even after hours,
and disappear into my property.

I can just imagine holes in the yard mysteriously appearing as if by animal, pipes broken as if for thirst, holes through the outside walls as if chewed by squirrels or rats which then could enter the house and create mayhem.

I would call the sheriff, and eventually a patrol car from a neighboring city would drive up in the dark, two officers with flashlights would walk around the house and report, “I don’t see nothin’.”

So I didn’t offer my services to the neighbors, not even if they paid me. I’m no fool.

Now, if we could just do something about the government.

Don’t get me started on the government.