On Fences

I remember hearing my parents say things like, "oh, we haven't seen them in 25 years! I wonder how they're doing!" Or, "I'm old enough to be her grandma," etc.

I can't believe I'm saying the same stuff.

I recently made friends again with a boy I used to know in high school. Our girls are the same age and his parents still live in the same house they lived in way back when. Anyway, he's not a boy anymore, he's a man and when I saw him again, I told him that I couldn't have or wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a room. That is how much he has changed. He was a boy when I knew him and now he's a grown up. So's his brother and his sister--kids to me back in the day--but now they are peers.

I normally would never re-connect with people from my past. I'm just not that type. I don't know why. I'm just not. But in this case, it felt right, probably because his family members were nice to me when I was an angsty teenager and, oh, I don't know. Maybe it's just the way the universe works.

I'm saying this because even though we have a fence that is rotting (see it there behind the napkins I sewed yesterday?) I can't even bring myself to speak to our neighbor about it--she's a nutjob and is even worse of a nutjob after HWWV mooned her that one night a long time ago--ha--probably not a good choice but I think he felt like he needed to do that since she stares at us from her upstairs bathroom window all day and night, don't know why, but she's up there or behind that rotting fence always more interested in what we have going on than what she has going on. Yeah, I admit our life must be a heck of a lot more interesting that hers. Shoot, we laugh. We chase the dogs. The dogs chase the squirrels. What does she have going on? A lot of staring out her bathroom window, that's for sure. And guess what? I've been in a house with her floor plan before. Do you know what she needs to do to even look through that window at us? Straddle her bathtub and the sink counter. Yup. She must be a regular Houdini-contortionist. Or, just really wanting to see my husband's behind again.

I don't know; that fence. It really bugs me. It bugs me because even if I try to say hi to her or try to break the ice so we can discuss fixing it for just a few minutes she shuts me down.

I'm waiting for a huge wind to blow that sucker over so we can finally talk about it. And the good news is, whenever we have big winds, they blow toward her side of the fence. Hopefully, when it comes down--and it will--it'll land in her backyard.

I still knit. I just need a break. Those napkins were fun to make. I got the idea from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. That book is fantastic. The projects are fun and pretty quick. I think the next thing I'll make is a tunic from her book out of some lovely cotton lawn. But since I've been trying to boycott Jo-ann's with all my might, I'll have to go online to buy fabric.

Regarding Jo-ann: I never leave happy. It is never a good experience. And believe it or not, I used to work there...back in the day, probably 8 years after the last time I saw that boy who is now a grown-up and now our girls play together.