As Robert Frost said....

I'm grateful for the wacky and weird. So much better than scary, so much more lively than bland.

So, last evening, Al happened to be looking out the window when the little girl made a dash for freedom. By his account, she was fashionably dressed in a fur hat that Laura from Dr. Zhivago would envy, hot pants, and cowboy boots. She was glimpsed running out the back gate of her house. Shortly afterward we were startled by someone shrieking in our driveway. I looked out and beheld the vision of an old woman in a bright pink house-dress shuffling along and periodically yelling over her shoulder, "Hyacinth!" At first I thought it was our neighbor Joy trying to corral her two Pomeranians and I went out to give her a hand. But as I got closer, I realized it was the little girl's grandmother, and then realized the little girl's name must be Hyacinth, and that Hyacinth was in big trouble. The old woman was just beside herself, shrieking for Hyacinth and then shuffling along muttering and grumbling and apparently trying to get a hold of something on the ground. The puppy! Sure enough the pup was blissfully rooting around the cat poo and making sure to keep away from the old lady's reach. I introduced myself to Phylis and volunteered to catch the wiggly mass of puppy bliss. As we walked back across the street, Phylis complained that Hyacinth had run out the back after being denied at the front door and the puppy had run out after her. Phylis was not happy, and as soon as the pup was safely in the yard, all but slammed the gate in my face. What is it with these people? The end result is that I am now officially a fan of Hyacinth, and an ally in her secret war against the oppressive dictatorship of Phylis.

Later in the evening, by now it is pitch dark, I heard a suspicious rustling and breaking of branches in the back yard. At first I thought it was Al, but no, he was inside the house with the dogs. So I wandered in back slightly worried that I was going to interrupt a break-in, when I discovered two collage girls pulling branches out of our trees. When I asked them what they were doing I was told that they were collecting wood for a fire they wanted to roast corn on since they didn't have any briquettes, and that's alright isn't it, I mean its just dead branches ya know, and we remembered seeing these trees earlier in the day, right? I was dumbfounded, and asked how much wood did they think they needed. They looked down and decided that the several branches they had collected was probably enough. By now I had gathered my wits and started asking them a little about college life (collecting data for a project I have in mind). After a little while we parted on friendly terms - them with the wood, me with food for thought. A fair exchange. And that was that, or so I thought.

But no, about an hour later I was alarmed to hear more branch breaking in the darkness. Could it be the girls back for more? Nah, they couldn't be that oblivious could they? Yes they very well could! Sure enough, they were back for more. Interestingly, when I asked them if they would be comfortable with me coming over to their house and pulling branches out their trees in the middle of the night, they actually paused and had to think about it. Fortunately the light somehow went on in their heads, and they said no and that they understood why I didn't think what they were doing was "cool." No more tree breaking for the rest of the night.

I am so designing fences.