My Home and More

I approach the sixteenth year in the same house. I may post some stories of my life with my neighbors, seems like a good project, for now… The photo I posted is not the neighbor I am writing about but the crazy neighbor who I photographed one night around midnight. He had set spot lights out to help him see what he was sanding while he prepped his house for painting. I have to give him props he did a good job over all, but I am curious what the impact was to his immediate neighbors ? I live behind his house a good 150’ … I did not hear him working but spied his set up on my way home from church (best I can recall) one late night, parked my car and walked over and took this pick with my new digital pocket camera, not a great picture but I was not familiar with my camera and I was afraid the crazy guy would cast a spell on me or something…(more on him later in another post)
The first sixteen years of my life I had lived in at least 7 different homes, so this home is what I would call a personal world record for myself.
My computer desk and myself sit nestled in front of a dormer window overlooking my backyard and some of my neighbors. From this high vantage point, being in a flood zone this old house (born on date 1935) sits high so I have a good vantage point to keep an eye out for irate or just plain crazed neighbors.
My front overlooks a number of my other neighbors and the home my parents lived when my much, much older brother "Toilet" was born way back in 1958. I discovered this fact after I bought the house.
I had just moved from an apartment that overlooked the house that my father grew up in. Apparently I have a knack for sticking tight to my roots. This knack has no real marketable value, I’ve tried and it just does not pay FY money to have a sixth sense as to where you chose to live, even if it is where your roots lie.
"Worlds foremost authority on the decline of piracy on the US coast in the 19th century".
I had a history teacher that boasted this, true he had written a couple of books on the decline of piracy and dubbed himself the worlds foremost authority. I am working on my resume, rest assured I am the world authority on a number of subjects… My neighbor and family lived directly across the street from my house (first 8 years of my stay) in the tiny original farm house before this area was developed. They had a long privacy fence around their yard which also held inside an old Carriage House ( built 1849ish) and moved to its current location in the 1920s…He added on and made it his office, he explained to me that if I saw him out there late at night he was working on a book about the history of a little known and rarely if ever used font. ( Don’t ask I can’t remember) I suppose he was planning to become the world’s foremost authority on this particular font.
This amiable enough man was in the insurance business and he told me he wrote very obscure polices, a lot of firsts, which was "where the money was". Then one day I saw moving trucks, he and his family were gone. I had not had contact with him for the last six months he was my neighbor, me thinking because I had a new garage door and opener so I could sneak in and out before he could catch me and regale me with wild tales of the font. Turns out the last 6 months he had been under house arrest for embezzling and had 15 or twenty judgements against him from various businesses’ and individuals. How I escaped unscathed? I suppose he never found an angle he could use on me, the font ploy fell flat. Over the years I refer to the privacy fence as a palisade fence because the two owners have ended up under house arrest. More on this later….Did this story drag on or is it just me? Kind Regards JW