4:00 p.m. - February 24, 2002
El migra, abuelito y abuelita
My father and his girlfriend Martha Stewart stopped by this afternoon with some plants intended for my backyard which has been taken over my Ms. Stewart herself since she ran out of improvement room on her own property. I'm cool with free labor.
My father remarked on the now-full suspected drug dealer/methamphetamine lab house and asked Since when has it been a destination point on coyote maps, a coyote map being one that originates in Mexico and ends in points unknown throughout the USA. He says he'll inform INS to come check and when I protested said That's the greatest thing about TTYs and the government--there's always someone there ready to answer calls from Concerned Deaf Citizens. Yesterday he received his invitation from AARP and takes the call to action seriously. Unfortunate about this exchange is that he had to point several times to the house. Paranoid me?
While I'm on the topic of doddering fathers and neighbors, I never provided an update on the old Alzheimer and racist couple next door who disappeared a while back. Apparently, and I emphasize apparently because the situation is fishy at best and sketchy at worst, the couple "switched houses" with a grand-neice who has moved here from Oregon because the older couple Fell In Love With Portland at first sight and the grand-neice "needed a new life" and thus hatched up the house-switching plan. The grand-neice, her boyfriend, and two occasional vagrants now live next door instead of the pleasant neighbors who made me laugh at Old Irish Couple Shenanigans. My fence was designed with neighborliness in mind and is now much too short for comfort.
The slightly perturbing facet of this house-switching is that when the garage door is open and it is not often open, one glimpses Former Irish Neighbor's car parked squarely and resolutely inside. Now I know Portland has a decent public transportation system, but wouldn't they have at least taken their car and a _few_ belongings? Do you hear the X-Files theme too? Or, if not conjuring Sculley and Mulder, then what could become a Time or Newsweek article on elder abuse in the making?
Or maybe the couple is sitting in their new Portland backyard gardening and talking with their new Portland side-neighbor about the weather and ideal plantings for overlooked corners and thinking We don't miss our former neighbor at all and good riddance!
Maybe?
