Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Back-hoe in the Neighborhood


Tonight, my husband noticed there was a back-hoe in our neighbor's driveway. Turns out they are embarking on another mystery home improvement project involving a rented back-hoe with an annoying BEEP BEEP BEEP reverse alarm. Last week, our other neighbors started having their roof redone. Why does this count as "news"? Well, we now are flanked by construction projects and they are consecutive in timing, meaning we have hammering, beeping, chain-sawing and engines running for fifteen hours a day. The roofing starts at 8AM. BANG BANG BANG...whirrrrrrrrrrrrr...ZERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...boom....The evening project gets started at around 8PM.

I think there might be a break from five to seven every evening, but I can't be sure since that is during the witching hours when my kids are screeching and talking in my ears. Add to that the sounds of dinner sizzling, dishes being done, and incessant requests for more food, milk, etc, and I think a mack truck could do donuts around my house during those hours and I wouldn't hear it.

Never has a person been so annoyed with such industrious neighbors. It just makes me feel so darn lazy for just working for a living and taking care of the kids and making dinner. The neighbors with the roofing project aren't necessarily too industrious. They 1) hired someone to do the roof and 2) desperately needed it. The other neighbors though...they take the cake for being the most energetic, hard-working people on the face of the earth. OK, that might be a bit dramatic, but seriously. Since they moved in a couple of years ago, they have done MANY, MANY projects. They do almost all of them themselves, not hiring tradespeople, and they do them AFTER a full day of work.

They are like Energizer bunnies. When it snows, our neighbor shovels his driveway and then moves on to OUR driveway. You might think this is great, and ostensibly, it is, but it makes a person feel very lazy. It's amazing how one can feel so much more lazy when they have over-achieving neighbors. I just want to say, "Pipe down over there. Go take up a hobby or something." A hobby other than showing up your lazy neighbors would be nice.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Happy Birthday

Does anyone remember the Frosty the Snowman Christmas special from when they were a kid? Frosty comes to life when a special hat is placed on his head. Everytime he comes to life, in the cartoon, he says, "Happy Birthday!" He says it innocently like a small child would upon waking.

This is my Happy Birthday blog.
This is a phoenix rising from the ashes.
This is my rebirth.

I have just donned my special hat. Welcome and Happy Birthday!