The Yard Man Thinks I'm Strange

Two blog entries in one day. I'm sorry. I can't help it. This one ties so nicely with a previous (October-ish) creepy neighbor entry. I'm thinking someone somewhere will appreciate it.

This one concerns another neighbor, not the creepy-one-by-the-tree neighbor, but an across-the-road neighbor. Actually, I don't even think this guy is an actual neighbor. I think he's the yard man. He's only seen every other week or so, and he always parks his truck and trailer right in front of our house.

He wears one of those straw hats and is a fairly big fellow. And I know he's only doing his job. Okay, okay... I know that seeing me try to lure an indoor, clawless cat from under the front porch was probably comical. I had been sitting on the swing completely immersed in an article I was reading for a paper when I suddenly got the feeling that the cat who had been curled up by my feet was no longer there. A few "Here, kitty-kitty's" later confirmed what I fear most when no kid is around to do the dirty work for me: the cat had tiptoed his way off the porch and had found his way under the porch. Keep in mind that this is a full-length-of-the-house porch and he was smack-dab in the middle. I went into the house to find a flashlight just so I could be sure that those glowing eyes I was seeing really did belong to my cat. That's probably when the creepy feeling started.

Minutes later, I had begged and pleaded enough (no way I was crawling under there) that the cat finally meandered out. I looked up to see, sure enough, the yard man in the hat holding his weedeater in mid-air looking at me. Like any good neighbor lady, I acted like I couldn't see anything from the blinding sun and strolled back to the porch like this happens all the time. I seriously think I heard him chuckling. With the cat back inside where he belongs, I went back to the swing to get back to work.

The air was silent. Not a bird chirping, not a bee buzzing. Only the trickle of water from the fountain. Those glowing eyes came back to me. A shiver went up my spine as I wondered what I would have done had that not been the cat. And yes, I do spend too much time alone.

Suddenly, that weedeater fired up with a vengeance. Well, there just are no words to express the spiral of emotions that went through my body in a matter of seconds. When my fingers stopped shaking enough to log out of the page I was on, I had to laugh. Or else I might cry. When did I get so jumpy?

So now the yard man and the creepy-neighbor-by-the-tree both think that the lady on the front porch must have some serious issues.

I'm starting to think they may be right. :)