10 Reflections from the Past Week 1. Last Friday evening we walked around downtown Missoula as a family. Two observations: One – What a bunch of weirdo’s down there…our family fit right in. 2. Two – inexplicably, in the middle of a downtown sidewalk sits a bright yellow piano. And, much to our delight, a local even offered to give us an impromptu piano performance. 3. Our ambulatory audience gathered around as she prepared herself; first she adjusted the bench, then she stretched her fingers, and then, with a bit of dramatic flair, her fingers found the appropriate keys and, using only her two index fingers, she ‘skillfully’ pounded out…Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater (to quote Dave Berry, I am not making this up). 4. Within seconds the performance concluded and the maestro turned to us expectantly…but we all stood there, stunned and uncertain how to respond. After a second of uncomfortable silence she said, with a mixture of hurt and indignation, “Don’t any of you know “Frere Jacques?” …and then she asked us for money. 5. The infamous ugly and neighbor- silent-treatment inducing fence is COMPLETE. I installed the last remaining portion - a gate. Which, appropriately, hangs at a 45 degree angle. It finalizes what I’m now referring to as “a fence with the good old-fashioned lived-in look”. I’m hoping it will catch on. 6. The bottom line is, ugly or not, IT IS FINISHED!!!! With joy, relief and satisfaction I put all of the fencing tools and supplies in storage, not to be disturbed until next spring, and began my list of remaining summer projects I can sabotage. 7. Then…Wednesday night…not one, but two, trees blew over and landed on the fence line on the OTHER end of our property. 8. Horrified I ran out to inspect the damage and it was worse than I had guessed. Not only did both trees tear down an extended portion of the fence, but Perfect Neighbor Mark(PNM), with his giant saw, was already hard at work cutting them up. 9. Because, again, I desperately seek approval from others…especially PNM…I ran and grabbed my teeny hobby farmer chain saw (I think it might be made by Fisher-Price) and tried to mimic all of PNM’s moves (having to interrupt him once so I could borrow some gas...which of course he cheerfully gave me) until “we” (I use that term loosely) had the trees removed. 10. PNM surveyed what remained of the fence and announced, “no problem, we’ll just come out here this weekend and put up a new fence-line, you can do that, right?” Great…another neighbor who won’t be speaking to me.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 16:39:18 +0000
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