We live in a retty ratty side of town. Whenever Clancy meets a new patient who lives within proximity to us, she internally groans. We have a really nice house, but it’s on a quadruple lot. A couple blocks down are trailer parks and houses that were smaller than I thought they made houses that weren’t trailers. Most of our neighbors seem to either be older folks, young folks who inherited property they couldn’t otherwise afford to buy, or groups of young people living together.
The houses to our south have a more suburban and family sort of atmosphere, though. But our house faces north and is on the north side of the yard. So they’re mostly people we just see through the back window.
It’s a shame because the location is pretty handy. We’re catacorner to the elementary and middle schools. We’re less than a five minute walk to the high school. Maybe a ten minute walk to downtown. On the west side is a neighborhood of large and expensive houses, a little bit closer to downtown though farther from the schools. It seems likely that if we were to stay in Callie, that’s where we would end up. If I got my way, anyway. If Clancy gets hers, we’d end up on some vast stretch of land outside of town.
Strangely enough, three of the four people who lived adjacently to us do not live adjacently to us anymore.
Across the street was a family that just seemed to disappear one night, leaving their dog behind. The dog would howl up a storm. I would have been worried, but someone was stopping by to take care of him. So I was more annoyed. I wondered if it might be a vacation, but who vacations in March in a place where there’s no Spring Break? They finally came back and started moving stuff. They were replaced, very briefly, by a couple of military guys. They didn’t stay. I don’t think they were meant to, as there was a “For Sale” sign up a day or two after they arrived. Now it’s a vacancy.
Next to us on the west is a college professor who is part of a really, really small gay community. Possibly a gay community of one. He drove a Cooper Mini, which is not a common car in these parts. We got along with him pretty well, though we didn’t have a whole lot in common with him. He’s retiring and moving to New England after having lived here for a whopping twenty years. Interestingly enough, Buck Branson lives next door to him. Buck was until recently a right-wing city councilman (and the reason we have a 15-mph speed limit on our road). Buck and Gayprof actually got along, though. The new occupants are a couple of young twenty-somethings that I have almost never seen.
On the other side was, until recently, an elderly woman. She and I have talked on occasion. She’s told me some about Callie’s history, her family, and so on. She’s also talked about our health care system, intimated that doctors these days are a lazy bunch (yes, she knew my wife is a doctor), and was in general someone who has determined that, at age 93, too old to keep any of her opinions to herself. Which made talking with her difficult, if informative about the town’s history (which, of course, includes a mysterious murder). Her house was invaded by her extended family that were picking the place clean and it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen her in a while. Sure enough, she died. The turnaround on the house was very quick. The new owner is apparently going to divide-and-rent it. It honestly seems like a pretty small place to try to do that.
At least in a gay community of one, safe sex is pretty much a given.
Comment by Peter — July 28, 2011 @ 12:42 pm
He has a lot of out of town visitors.
Comment by trumwill — July 28, 2011 @ 7:15 pm
Whenever Clancy meets a new patient who lives within proximity to us, she internally groans.
This is known as failing the empathy test.
Next to us on the west is a college professor who is part of a really, really small gay community…He has a lot of out of town visitors.
Sounds like the solution to your social problems.
We’re less than a five minute walk to the high school.
At 3, do you sit on the porch with a camera and a bucket of popcorn? Creepy but legal.
Comment by Mike Hunt — July 28, 2011 @ 7:33 pm
This is known as failing the empathy test.
Also known as “being human.”
At 3, do you sit on the porch with a camera and a bucket of popcorn? Creepy but legal.
Nowhere to sit. Lots of young ladies walking along our sidewalk in the morning and afternoon wearing inappropriate attire. Not that I watch. One of them helped us find Lisby when she ran away, though.
Comment by trumwill — July 28, 2011 @ 11:50 pm
Oh, and Mike, a while back you asked if I was going to accept Guest Posts. If you have anything in mind, now’s a pretty good time. I’ve been doing a lot of Commodus work and am preparing for a vacation next week to Shell Beach.
Same goes for anyone else interested.
Comment by trumwill — July 29, 2011 @ 1:59 am
Also known as “being human.”
Fair enough, but I need to point out the irony of you saying lack of empathy is being human.
What is so wrong with the people of your neighborhood? General white trash, or something beyond that?
Oh, and Mike, a while back you asked if I was going to accept Guest Posts. If you have anything in mind, now’s a pretty good time.
I don’t at the moment, but if I do I will let you know. Thanks for the opportunity. And yes, I know that HBD and The Bell Curve are off-limits.
One of them helped us find Lisby when she ran away, though.
Tell us about her. Pics would be nice as well. Be warned though. Kidnapping a kid by telling him/her that you lost your puppy is the oldest trick in the book. You might as well offer them candy, as well…
(People with no sense of humor. I am not advocating anything in the previous paragraph.)
Comment by Mike Hunt — July 29, 2011 @ 2:18 pm
What is so wrong with the people of your neighborhood? General white trash, or something beyond that?
Well, there’s a drug dealer down the street and the other day there was screaming about something not being the excrement that someone had paid for, but that’s atypical.
For me, it’s mostly just a culture thing. No real problems, just a different sort of folk.
According to Clancy, though, there is a level of dysfunction from people that live near us that she has to deal with. Though it’s good for business in its own way, dysfunctional people can get on doctors’ nerves. She hasn’t said so, but it wouldn’t surprise me if our neighbors tended to be drug-seekers, too*.
* - As in seeking prescriptions from a doctor, not buying from the guy who sold some excrement to someone else that the latter did not believe that they had paid the right price for.
Comment by trumwill — July 29, 2011 @ 8:48 pm
People who hate NAMs and wish to live only among white people haven’t really thought things out very well…
Comment by Mike Hunt — August 2, 2011 @ 7:29 pm
I should also point out that according to Linkluster XLVII, medical school decreases empathy.
Comment by Mike Hunt — August 2, 2011 @ 8:03 pm
Mike, I actually wonder in some ways if poor whites don’t benefit from the presence of NAMs by virtue of the positive comparison. Instead of seeing white trash, they see “people who are not as bad as these other people.”
I figured that’s what you were referring to with the empathy comment.
Comment by trumwill — August 2, 2011 @ 10:37 pm