Tolerate thy neigbor

Before I start today's column, I like to update my perm saga. I have to laugh, I'm blessed with a handful of best friends, about half girls, half guys… and I'm amused that the guys are like egging me on...  just let Bobby do it… send pictures… my gal pals sent discreet emails, all starting with "you know I love Bobby but…"

 

As it turned out, I did let Bobby give me a perm yesterday. My favorite buddy and I gently directed him and I think it turned out great. And if you aren't looking for it, you won't notice, except for a little more puff. (not big hair.. :p  )

 

Moving on. Something happened this weekend that totally freaked me out. To protect the innocent, I'll say it happened at party O's house, someone I'm extremely close too.

 

I don't know how to explain it but the short version is for about three hours on Saturday a man in his birthday suit hung out on Party O's front porch and towards the end he was getting violent, banging on doors, throwing flower pots. We don't know if he was mentally ill or what…

 

The good news is no one at Party O's was hurt. The police had to sedate the guy and he was taken away. If that was that, I'd call it an unfortunate event but its not the end of the story.

 

As it turns out the guys lives across from party O. The weird part is I was considering going there Saturday. I don't think I even told Bobby. I was weighing the options and I think I decided we'd go in a few weeks…

 

If we had gone Saturday like I was tempted to, we'd get there about noon. And by 1 Nicholas would be running with the neighborhood kids in front of the house. And even as I type this I get goose bumps. When Nicholas was 2, we used to joke that if we let him he'd try to befriend an axe murderer. Not so funny now.

 

A few weeks ago we found out there was a house broken into in our neighborhood. So we took a refresher course on reminding ourselves to lock the door, and strangely this is the first time I thought about the break in since the locking the doors lecture.  but I've been consumed with Party O's dilemma. 

 

It's a great house in a kid friendly neighborhood. We hang out on the porch watching the kids play. Nicholas is going there for a week in august. I'm still letting him go of course but I'll worry an ounce more. but if I didn't let him go, that's opening Pandora's box. If I decide not to let him hang out in a upper middle class neighborhood. I certainly can't let him hang out at my mom's resale shop in the crappy part of town, where I've been mentally preparing myself for something like this to happen for 25 years… You'd expect bad things to happen in bad areas, not safe neighborhood.

 

Its just a weird feeling. Party O was asking for suggestions. One is calling a realtor. One is pricing bullet proof windows, steel proof locks, body armor… Of course Party O has vetoed both extreme ideas but it does make you think…

 

If  he was just like a friendly well-buff nudist, this would be so much easier…