08:01 – I’m back into heads-down mode on the forensics book, which we need to deliver in finished form to O’Reilly by the end of next month. Things are likely to be a bit sparse here between now and then.
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
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http://www.pakman.com/2012/04/16/why-should-ebooks-cost-15/
The older lady who lived next door to Tiny House, moved out a few months ago. It’s a very long story, but her health was failing, and her male companion (once her husband) of about 4 decades or more, was not up to caring for her, so she moved in with her daughter. I learned yesterday that she died last week. She had been in and out of the hospital for years, and always seemed fine when she got home, but I suspect they were watching her medications closely, and things eventually veered off course when she got home.
Anyway, the house she lived in was built by my grandfather and his brother, for their sister. It is a mirror image of Tiny House, so my grandmother and her sister in-law could see each other from the kitchen windows, which precisely face each other about 12 feet apart. All 6 houses sweeping east of me and around the corner were built by my mom’s family, going back to Johann Rahe from Germany 4 generations prior to me–although only my house and my second cousin’s are still occupied by family.
One of the things in life that I have found so strange, is how people in these immediate environs (central Indiana) complain bitterly about how unfriendly other parts of the country supposedly are, but yet, hardly anyone in these parts knows anything about their neighbors. I thought I was on pretty good terms with the deceased lady’s partner, but he said not a word to me about her passing, and I missed the funeral altogether.
In other places I have lived,–St. Paul, Minnesota; Evanston, Illinois; Natick and Melrose, Mass.–we knew practically everyone on the block, and they knew us. Actually, let me go further–we knew everyone on our street, the cross street, the streets behind us and across from us, and everybody in that part of town who had kids in the same day care, and most of the parents of kids in their later school classes. But yet, people around here are irrationally fond of proclaiming Boston and Chicago as patently “unfriendly”.
Right now, I know everyone in 6 of the 7 houses that surround Tiny House–and that’s it. Although I made an effort with the people in the 7th house when I first moved in–waving, saying hello, etc.–it was never returned. I finally gave up and ignore them like they ignore me, each pretending the other does not exist.
The area has changed a lot since I was a kid, but that part of not knowing your neighbors, persists unto this day. And I’m sorry, but THAT’S unfriendly; not those other places.
Chuck wrote:
“The area has changed a lot since I was a kid, but that part of not knowing your neighbors, persists unto this day. And I’m sorry, but THAT’S unfriendly; not those other places.”
It’s the times…
My parents generation knew everyone for several streets around but I only know 2-3 of my neighbors casually. Haven’t been inside any of their houses for at least five years.
My parents used to drive over twice a year and stay for three weeks. They’d meet my neighbors and introduce them to me. I think a lot of “younger” people like myself just aren’t that sociable.
My wife and I took our daughter for a walk around the block tonight. We actually encountered a mother out walking her baby, and a couple out walking their dogs. I think that’s the most people walking we have seen in the 33 months since we bought our house.
That’s interesting. We know most of the people on our block, although I have no clue what most of their last names are. When I take Colin out during the day, there are usually at least a couple other people out walking dogs or working in the yard. In the evening, we commonly encounter several people just on our half of the block, some neighbors, but many people we recognize by sight from other parts of the neighborhood, also out walking their dogs, running, or whatever.
We don’t have to worry much about break-ins, vandalism, and so on, because there are always people around during the day and in the evening. We have a lot of retired people and stay-at-home moms here, so there are always many eyes.
I suspect my house was broken into at least once before I bought it in 1985. When I bought it most of the land opposite was vacant, there was about 500 metres of free grassland down to a major highway, but bulldozers were working there and it was soon covered with houses. Since then there’s been only one obvious break-in attempt that I know of: one day I came home to find that a fly wire screen had been removed from a window and was lying on the lawn. Fortunately I had window locks so they couldn’t get in. Other than that no one has broken in while I’ve owned the place.
On the rare occasions when Barbara and I are both gone, we don’t worry much about a break-in. Colin is very alert, and has an extremely loud, deep bark. No sane person would try to break into our house when they heard that. And, of course, George and Martha, our rattlesnakes, have free run of the downstairs area. Nothing like a pair of 7-foot rattlesnakes to discourage burglars. George is actually pretty laid back, but Martha has a nasty temper. More like a water moccasin than a rattlesnake.