Almost everyone is settled in and the equipment is ready for tomorrow morning. So, off to work on my Girl Scout swaps (which are a total disaster). Oh, but wait.

I promised I would mention the other homes in our cove. It’s too late for all so tonight there will only be two. I’ve already said that the house to our right is owned by a slum lord and resided in by at least two different couples. On the other side of the renters is one corner of the cove. It is currently owned by a contractor who is living in it and fixing it up to sell for a profit. We are disappointed that it isn’t a family but excited to see the huge improvements being made and confident that a slum lord won’t be able to meet his asking price when he sells. The owners before the contractor were a family of three and one mother-in-law. They lost the house when it was repossessed by the bank (I know it sounds familiar). The reason it was repo’d was because the husband showed up to work drunk one too many times and lost his job. The wife didn’t mean to get pregnant and hated being a mother (it interfered with her anorexia). So, when the baby was a year old she went to California to “find herself.” She came back about twice a year for week long visits during which the husband would stay away (as would his girlfriends). The rest of the time husband lived there with his mother-in-law who was bipolar and well known for 2 and 3 day sleep-deprived marathon projects like working in the yard or painting walls. They got along WAY too well. Anyway, when the son turned five dad filed for a divorce and full custody. Mom then returned home and said she was there to stay but failed to mention that she kept her living arrangements in L.A. It was quickly apparent to everyone that she came home to keep the house (not the son). After dad lost his job and they lost the house she declared that she was going to art school in California for just a little while. Dad, son and Grandma lived in an apartment in Georgia where he had extended family. The divorce was finalized and Dad filed for child support from Mom so Mom came down, took the son to California and that’s the last we heard from any of them.

The other house in tonight’s post is brief. It is truck guy, who doesn’t actually live in our cove, but is the house looking directly into our cove like an arrow would look into a bow. Truck guy is some sort of landscaper. This is confusing to me because he hasn’t done ANY landscaping to his own property. He does have a bamboo jungle isolating his house from his neighbors and his front bushes grow into his gutters, so it’s not easily apparent where the front door is. Truck guy keeps his fireplace going from the first cold snap until the last frost. He doesn’t get the paper which wouldn’t be noticeable except that our newspaper delivers free to everyone at least once a week. I don’t know if it’s a political statement or if he can’t read but truck guy won’t pick those free papers up. You’d think he’d need them for the fire but apparently bamboo serves as kindling. The pile of newspapers under his mailbox would be quite large except that the ones on the bottom have decayed and flattened and created their own compost pile. I can’t say anything about his personal life because unlink all the other residents of our cove, truck guy keeps to himself. In fact he’s rather hermit-like except that every time I see him he smiles and waves. We like truck guy.