Tuesday, June 30: Day 18

I think it's time to tell you about our little Dennis the Menace. The one in the middle with the red helmet. He lives in the complex next door but sometimes it doesn't feel that way. Him and his buddies are always hanging out on our lawn or driveway, yelling and leaving their toys everywhere. The fence that separates our complex and his was at one time broken down in a few places where he and his friends had pushed through the planks so they could crawl through for easier passage. Matthias got after them for that and luckily it's all been repaired and has stayed that way since.

Just yesterday, I looked out the window and he was running back and forth on top of my neighbor's truck, trying to chase another little boy running around the truck. He was literally running from the hood, over the front window, on top of the truck, to the trunk, and back again. Someone else intervened before I got the chance to. But what if that had been our car? They've also been known to run up our stairs and play on our little porch area.

One day he tried to sell me a newspaper for $1. When I said I didn't have any cash, he said, "How about .50?" I said, "No." "How about .5?" I said, "I'm sorry, no." As I was closing the door, he yelled to someone else farther away, "She said no but we'll come back tomorrow." Fortunately he decided to quite his career as a newspaper-seller because he never tried again.

One day I was reading on the couch. All of the sudden, I hear a knock on the window by our door and the kid is staring at me through the window. He yells, "Hiiii". Then he sat and stared at me for a good 20-30 seconds. I thought I had privacy since we're on the upper level and the stairs only lead to our apartment but I was very wrong. Now I know to keep the blinds down if I don't want any interruptions.

Anyway, I kind of feel like a grouchy neighbor. But I do want to know that I have my own space and that if I want to spread a blanket out on my lawn and read, that I can do so without him coming up to me and talking to me about all sorts of things for as long as I'm out there (it's happened a couple of times...I pretend like I have to go in, even though I just barely came out with my blanket and book a few minutes before). I also want to know our car is going to be safe from dents when I'm not looking. Is it too much to ask?